Okami: Abridged
by MysticDragon21
Summary: In an unfortunate turn of events, two friends find themselves trapped in the world of Okami. Their only way back? Running around alongside Amaterasu in a good ol' fashioned adventure. Rated T for swearing and a certain perverted poncle. -SCRAPPED, READ NEWEST UPDATE FOR DETAILS-
1. Prologue

As Amaterasu defeated the last demon, Silva handed the Wii remote to Abigail. "You try. It's easy."  
>Abigail simply grinned as she began to play. "Hey, this is pretty fun- wait..." A frown formed on her face. "...I have a bad feeling about letting me play..." She solemnly handed it back. As if answering the question before it came, she took a photo album from her bag and flipped through it. From the looks of it, it was a collection of all of the game over screens she'd ever gotten. Some of them even repeated multiple times.<br>Silva looked through the pictures. "Don't worry. I've got an Astral Pouch. If you die, you get revived and I take the remote away. Easy as pie. Besides, these are weak demons."  
>Too late. Abigail had somehow already died. She gasped and rummaged through her bag for her camera, and quickly snapped a shot of the screen.<br>Silva blinked. "That has to be a record."  
>"I set <em>all <em>the records," Abigail replied simply. "I died in Paper Mario before you even begin the real adventure. And not when you're supposed to, I'm talking during the _prologue._"  
>"What the frick." Silva said simply. She looked thoughtful. "I don't think you'd die that fast if it were real life, though..."<br>"Wanna bet?" Carlisle said from behind them, grinning. Silva's expression turned from thoughtfulness to fear to anger. Abigail's expression simultaneously turned curious, but also utterly nonplussed.  
>"Wait, what are you going to-"<br>"Carlisle, don't you _dare_-"  
>Too late. Carlisle snapped his fingers, teleporting them to the land of Okami.<p> 


	2. In Which There Is Much Eavesdropping

**First thing I must say: This was written with my best friend, The Great Mikey Weston. Also, I'm really, really sorry we made you guys wait. Every time I tried to upload the next chapter, it wouldn't show up. And then I asked Mikey about it and found out I needed to attach the chapter to the story In order for it to show up. So I am currently feeling like an idiot. We're also having a few problems in real life, so don't be surprised if there are more delays.**

**Second ****thing, ****actually ****written ****by ****The ****Great ****Mikey ****Weston: ****Don****'****t ****worry, ****you****'****re ****still ****a ****freshie. ****Anyway, ****disclaimer: ****Abigail ****is ****my ****character, ****therefore ****I ****own ****her. ****Likewise, ****Mystic ****owns ****Silva. ****We ****don****'****t ****own ****Okami ****or ****anything ****from ****Okami, ****or ****any ****possible ****references ****made.**  
><strong>Mystic: <strong>**Enjoy ****the ****show! *****backs ****out ****dramatically***  
><strong>-<strong>  
>"ACK!" Silva fell through several branches of a tree and landed on the ground. "Ow... that was <em>so<em> not fun..."  
>The only response was a muffled sort of noise. Upon closer inspection, that pile of leaves in the corner was <em>not<em>a pile of leaves after all, but Abigail, covered in leaves after being sent face-first into a tree. She now lay on the ground, twitching feebly, but after her first attempt to speak, lifted her head and spat out leaves and dirt. "...You never have fun after being teleported randomly. Trust me."  
>"It's happened to me more than once, believe me." She gets up and looks around, then up at the tree. "This is Konohana... so then..." She looked up at the sky, which was an eerie, ominous mixture of purple and black. "We must be at the beginning of the game. Wait... That means Sakuya's going to come out any time now...! Quick! Hide!" She grabbed Abigail's arm and pulled her behind the tree. Abigail yelped, but quickly fell silent as she waited.<br>Pretty soon a floating girl in a pink kimono appeared in flower petals. "That's Sakuya," Silva explained in a whisper. Try as she might, Abigail couldn't manage to discern what she was saying. Her expression changed as she looked at the girl, seeming to say that she was impressed and confused at the same time.  
>Sakuya threw a disk at the wolf statue in front of her, and the statue came to life, turning into a white wolf with red markings, the disk on it's back on fire. Silva edged closer to hear what they were saying.<br>"Ah! Such divine white light! Such beauty and grace! The only one capable of such a wondrous spectacle is none other than our mother and the origin of all that is, Amaterasu!"  
>"Wow! She's even more impressive in real life!" Silva gasped.<br>"Shh!" Abigail urgently put a finger to her lips, her brown eyes wide. "They'll hear you!" Thankfully, it seemed like they didn't. Sakuya continued to speak. "How delightful to see that the savior whose brave sacrifice sealed away the evil demon so many years ago has not changed one bit. Seeing you emerge after so many years spent as a statue brings happiness to my heart!" She wiped her eyes. Amaterasu's only response was to yawn and go to sleep. Sakuya immediately gave off an air of displeasure. "Amaterasu ...look above you and take in the condition of the sky.  
>"Since your untimely departure from our midst, the world has succumbed to devious and vicious beasts. They have ravaged our fine and bountiful country of Nippon... but never have the circumstances been worse than they are now. Please use your powers to banish the darkness and punish those who would do us harm." Suddenly, her chest jiggled. "Hm?" It jiggles again.<br>"Holy _fudge_," Abigail whispered disbelievingly.  
>"Eh? What is this?" Her whole body was wiggling now. "Has something stolen its way into my robe? Ho ho ho..." She began to laugh. "Ooh he he he... A ha ha ha ha ha ha!" She lifted her head- a small green thing leapt out of her robe. "Phew! What on earth?" She said. "You again?" The small green thing began to jump. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Are you nuts?" At it's voice, Amaterasu got up and growled at it. "Boy, for a little thing, you sure make a big fuss!" The green thing exclaimed.<br>"Dude, Issun is _tiny!_I didn't realize he was _that_small!" Silva whispered.  
>Abigail did not respond, but simply looked relieved. "...thank god that wasn't what I thought it was."<br>Silva glanced at Abigail curiously. "What did you think what was?"  
>"Please, don't ask," Abigail replied, making a face. "I've seen too much in my day."<br>The others, however, had not heard their conversation at all, and continued as usual. "I was just trying to make the conversation a bit more interesting, that's all!" Issun continued. "Were you napping in my clothes again, bug?" Sakuya queried.  
>Abigail facepalmed. "...'<em>Again<em>'?" Silva snickered softly.  
>"Bug? I told you a thousand times not to call me that!" Issun exclaimed indignantly. "I'm a wandering artist. The name's Issun!" A scroll randomly came down that bore the legend: <strong>Wandering <strong>**Artist ****Issun**.  
>Abigail blinked. "That was pretty obvious. He just said what he was, and then there's a scroll- no, you know what, I'm not going to bother."<br>"Yeah, that would be a good idea, since that happens a lot." Silva replied.  
>"I'll show you how great I am and it won't be long till you're bowing before my great brush!"<br>Silva facepalmed. Issun took out two paintings and threw them at Sakuya and Ammy. Sakuya tossed hers aside, and Silva reached out and grabbed it before it flew away on the wind. She looked at it. It was a picture of Sakuya, except more detailed. "Well, whaddaya think? Even cuter than the real thing, no?" Issun said, with a hint of smugness.  
>"Except the real thing has a smaller chest." Silva whispered. Abigail nodded fervently in agreement, looking highly amused.<br>Issun jumped on Ammy's head. "What's with you, furball? You look kinda down in the dumps. Actually... You look kinda familiar... Got it! You look just like that statue of Shiranui!" Ammy ate Issun in response. Silva had to stuff her knuckles in her mouth to keep from laughing out loud, while Abigail barely suppressed a shriek of laughter.  
>Apparently Issun didn't taste that good in Ammy's opinion, however, because almost as quickly as she ate him, she spat him out again. "Woah! What do you think you're doing?" Issun steamed and hopped up and down, much faster now, a red aura emanating from him. "Are you crazy? A handsome guy like me should never be covered in wolf slobber!"<br>"Unfortunately for him I can't even tell if he's as handsome as he says he is. He's too small." Abigail shrugged. "I know, right?" Silva said, shaking her head. "It's an unfortunate fact of life," Abigail agreed.  
>"You'll regret messing with the great Issun! Don't make me use my prized sword, Denkomaru, against you!" The sound of a sword being pulled out of it's sheath was heard.<br>Suddenly, there was a loud roar. Everyone looked up to the sky, which was now orange. "Wh-wh-what's that growling sound?" Issun squeaked, now bouncing on Ammy's nose. "And why's it so dark, anyway?"  
>"O, great god Amaterasu..." Sakuya said, speaking for the first time in a while, "I've used all the power I have to protect Kamiki village. The village lives on. Their spirits lie encased in my fruit. Cut it free, and the village will be reborn! I trust in you. I know that you will lead us down the right path. Only your awesome power can restore faith in the world."<br>"The tree's returned to normal, huh?" Issun said, after Sakuya had disappeared in sparkles and flower petals. "That Sakuya girl sure said some weird stuff. The villagers' spirits are being kept inside the fruit... That's the fruit." He looked to a giant peach hanging from one of the branches. "If you cut it down, the village will be restored. But it's awfully high up there. If you don't use some kind of special power, there's no way you're gonna reach it. This darkness is really getting to me, too. A lot can happen while you're taking a nap."  
>"Unfortunately, that's very true," Abigail muttered.<br>Ammy ran through a portal in the tree's base. Silva looked at Abigail questioningly. "Should we follow?"  
>Abigail paused, and frowned, folding her arms. She tapped a finger on one arm, pursing her lips, as if lost in thought. "...Why not," she said finally, unfolding her arms and shrugging, a grin spreading across her face. "This might actually be fun."<br>"How are we going to join them, though? Just walk up to them and say, 'HI, we're from another dimension, and we want to join you on your quest!'?" Silva asks. "Or are we just going to secretly follow them throughout the entire game?"  
>"That would be impossible." Abigail shrugged again. "I say we just pretend we're goddesses from another dimension sent to help Ammy. I mean, would anyone deny I'm a goddess if I can do THIS?" There was a poof of smoke, and she'd transformed into an exact copy of Ammy. In another weird, but different sort of transformation, she'd become herself again, face setting into a pout. "I'm still working on how I transform," she grumbled.<br>Silva blinked. "...well then. I guess it helps that I'm a fairy."  
>"How was the smoke, by the way?" Abigail queried, raising an eyebrow.<br>Silva grinned in response. "It was fine." She walked out from behind the tree. "Alright, let's catch up to them." She proceeded to run through the portal, Abigail hard on her heels with a grin reforming on her face. ...But it was ruined as she stumbled, then continued following Silva. "I'm not USED to being tall!" she whined, pouting once more. Silva, however, had already gone through the portal and didn't hear her. Grumbling to herself, Abigail scurried into the portal after her.  
><strong>-<strong>  
><strong>Review <strong>**and ****you ****get ****cookies! ...Or any other delicious food that you prefer. *shrug***


	3. Three Goddesses, One Pervert

**Whee, another chapter~! And yes, horrible chapter title, I know. :P ...although I despise the way Issun came out. ...actually I despise this chapter in general. Mainly because of Issun. And Ammy, only because I CANNOT GET HER PERSONALITY RIGHT ASDFGHJKL;. I'm going to re-write him in the next few chapters, so expect delayed updates for about three weeks or so. I'm sorry, I just want this story to be awesome and in order to do that I have to re-write a bunch of stuff from two months ago. But anyways. Read and review, plz~!  
>Disclaimer: I don't own Abigail or Okami. Abigail belongs to Mikey and Okami belongs to Capcom... rawr...<br>**

* * *

><p>Silva scanned the area after she emerged on the other side of the portal. "Cave of Nagi, I think it was called... anyways. Issun and Ammy should be getting Rejuvenation right about now..."<p>

She looked behind her to make sure Abigail was there. She was, but she was still muttering to herself, though she looked up when Silva turned. "Huh? What?"

"Muttering isn't good for you." Silva told her cheerfully, as she turned back around and kept running.

"Sure it is- Hey!" Abigail cried indignantly, and she followed, stumbling from being unused to having such long legs to control.

"Hurry up, they're probably crossing the River of the Heavens now!" Silva called, looking back over her shoulder... and running into a cliff wall. She fell backwards. "Oof!"

Abigail skidded to a halt just in time and mercifully managed to keep balance. She grinned broadly at Silva. "...Watch your step," she said brightly.

"Screw you," was the only reply. Silva got up, then did a once-over of the wall. "Can't climb it. No footholds. Oh well." She opened her leaf-shaped wings, and flew up to the top of the wall. She looked back down at Abigail. "Your turn!" She said brightly, now hovering a foot or two off the top of it.

Abigail pursed her lips, and proceeded to transform into a robin, fluttering up toward Silva and twittering indignantly, as if to say, You couldn't have helped me out? She let out a final, huffy flap of feathers, and fell silent, scanning the wall for a comfortable perch.

Silva clapped for a few seconds, then flew off towards the river, going twice as fast as she was running. "C'mon!" She said, a broad smile on her face, doing loop-de-loops and the like.

Abigail simply followed as fast as she could manage with her tiny wings, a severely annoyed look in her eyes.

Silva apparently thought she wasn't going fast enough, so she snatched Abigail mid-flight and flew off, over the river and through another portal. Abigail feebly fluttered her wings, awaiting a moment in which she could escape from Silva's grip.

Silva accidentally crashed into Ammy as she was going up the path, and she rolled a ways down the hill, letting go of Abigail as well. "Ow," She muttered, rubbing her arm.

Abigail, on the other hand, was rather unlucky, as she found herself thrown upward into the air- and headfirst into a portion of the hill. She transformed back into herself and rubbed her face. "Ouch! That hurt!" she whined. "Why've I been getting hurt so much today?"

"Maybe 'cause the gods hate you and are giving you bad luck until you die." Silva replied sarcastically.

"Hey!" Issun exclaimed. "Who're you two?" He was hopping next to Ammy, who was getting up. She got into a defensive position- Or offensive, Silva couldn't tell- and began growling at them.

Abigail cleared her throat. "You know, I might not look like much," she said, indicating her clumsy, tall self, complete with mousy brown hair, "but I'm actually the goddess Celeste, of shape and form!" She grinned, but quickly changed it to a look of reserved regality. Somehow, just the change in expression seemed to change her entire air. "...Just," she continued, relaxing, "please call me Abigail."

"Or you can call her Abby." Silva says, grinning. "Anyways, I'm Silva. The goddess of fairies."

"...Please DON'T call me Abby, by the way," Abigail piped up, putting a hand to her cheek. "It's... an annoying name."

"But you can if you want to." Silva said, grinning again.

"No, DON'T!"

Issun eyed them, (They assumed, anyways. He was too small for them to see what he was doing, much less his facial expressions.) "Ok, I believe the white-haired girl- Silva, was it?- But you-" He turned to Abigail. "-are going to have to prove it."

"Of course I will," Abigail replied brightly. She narrowed her eyes, and in a poof of smoke, turned into Issun. The only indication that it was her was the burnt siena ribbon that lay on the ground next to her, which had been tied around her wrist moments before.

Issun jumped backward in alarm, a stream of profanities issuing from his mouth as he nearly fell into the river behind him.  
>"...Well, that's too big for me," the second Issun said, in Abigail's voice, looking at the ribbon. In another poof, she became herself again, and snatched the ribbon from the ground, fumbling with it as she tried to tie it around her wrist again.<p>

"We're from other dimensions, here to help you with your adventure." Silva added.

Issun and Ammy looked at each other. Issun shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Awesome!" Silva smiles brightly as she floats up a few feet again.

"I wouldn't mind travelling with a couple of babes, anyways!" Issun said cheerfully, now hopping on Ammy's head.

Silva rolled her eyes.

Abigail didn't say anything, but looked somewhat embarrassed. "...So," she said hastily, changing the subject,  
>"What next?"<p>

"Well, we were going to go cut down the fruit now that we have Powerslash - wait, you don't know about the Brush Gods or our mission, do you?"

"Actually, we do." Silva said.

"...Or at least she does. I didn't get all the details, I got thrown in last minute." Abigail shrugged.

Issun started bouncing again. "Ok then. Let's go!"

Silva looked at Abigail questioningly. "You want me to carry you again? Or you can ride on Ammy," she added, "if she lets you."

Abigail's expression changed to embarrassment again. "...I'll just let you carry me," she said sheepishly. "I can't transform into anything fast enough right now..." In another puff of smoke, she became a mouse, with her ribbon tied around her middle.

Silva picked her up. "Awww! You're so cute!"

Abigail chattered fervently, as if embarrassed. The lack of being able to speak to Silva seemed to make her even more embarrassed, and she gave a mouse-ish huff.

Silva flew off to join Issun and Ammy, who had gone on ahead while they were talking and were now crossing the River of Stardust. All Abigail could do was sit in Silva's grip and shut her eyes against the blinding air that whipped her face.

* * *

><p>Once they had gone back outside in front of Sakuya's tree, Ammy flicked her tail, powerslashing the fruit and making it fall down. When they turned around, the village had been restored.<p>

Abigail squeaked and clapped her paws together several times, as if applauding.

"Wow! The village's been restored! Sakuya really pulled through big time!" Issun exclaimed.  
>"She really was protecting the village! But I sure wish I coulda spent more time in her kimono, if you know what I mean! Heh heh heh heh heh!"<p>

Silva flicked Issun off Ammy's head.

"But seriously, with all these monsters running around, the village could still be in danger." He continued, grumbling a bit and picking himself up.

"We'd better go down there and see how they're doing." Silva said. Ammy nodded, and ran down the path after Issun had gotten back on her head, Silva right behind her.

* * *

><p><strong>Completely despise him in this chapter. Hopefully he'll be better in later chapters. Rainbow Guppy, I didn't give you a cookie because your review really wasn't about the chapter. And I'm kind of disapointed that no-one else reviewed. :( Buuuut I suppose it's going to happen again in the future so I shouldn't gripe about it. Anyway, please review! (All I need is at least 1 review that actually talks about the story! And then I will be happy.) Suggestions are welcome! And again, I WILL give cookies to reviewers!<strong>


	4. Statue People

**HELLO EVERYONE AND WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF OKAMI: ABRIDGED. *shot for ChuggaConroy reference* Ok, we're really sorry we haven't updated in forever, we just kind of forgot about O:A after a while... xD**  
><strong>Mikey: ...yeah we're sorry about that. Oh well, on with the show.<br>Mystic: Anyway. Mikey and I do not own Okami. We do, however, own Silva and Abigail.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>As Ammy and Silva went down the path, they noticed a statue at the crossroads. It looked like a man with a pot for a head trying to play a flute.<p>

"This is the weirdest statue I have ever seen." Silva said. If Abigail had a comment, it was in mouse language, so it was impossible to tell.

"What in the worlds? I don't even remember there being a statue here..." Issun piped up. "Well, whatever. Let's go talk to the villagers."

They continued down the path to the village, eventually walking up to a statue of a woman standing in a small field.

"Hey, there's a statue here, too! It's like the villagers have turned to stone or something!"

There was another loud roar, very much like the previous one. Silva flinched. This was much louder than in the game, and it was starting to hurt her sensitive ears.

"Not again? That's not one of those smaller monsters that's lurking about. A roar like that's got to belong to something bigger!" Issun was sweating now.

"You think?" Silva snapped.

"Let's hurry up and find somebody with a pulse around here!"

They spent ten more minutes of walking around and finding even more statues, until Ammy finally stopped at the statue of an elderly lady by the river.

"That's odd. Everyone was fine just a few hours ago! There's definitely something strange going on here. The village is back, but what's up with this dark sky?"

"It's nighttime. Obviously," Silva put in, and then spoke again before Issun could keep talking. "But I think we should find higher ground, so we might be able to find the source of the problem."

Suddenly, a weird orange-and-red arrow appeared in front of Amaterasu. "Does anyone else think that's creepy?" Silva asked, staring at the arrow suspiciously. Abigail lifted a hand as if in agreement. They followed it anyways, the arrow leading them to a platform overlooking the Konohana tree. They looked up at the sky. "This is bad. The sun's not even shining! It's as black as night as far as the eye can see."

"I told you."

"Shut up and let me talk."

"No."

They bickered like this for a few more minutes, until Ammy barked to get their attention.

"...anyways..." Issun continued. "Not a single villager can move a muscle... Is it some kind of curse? Did a monster do this? It's not gonna stay like this forever, is it? If only the sun were out to light the way... If you could draw a circle in the sky, we'd have ourselves a sun! But I guess that'd be impossible, even for a god like you. Maybe we should seek out another brush god for help. Of course, if you had that kind of power from the start, that'd be a different story..."

"Cue circle in the sky." Silva said under her breath, watching Ammy make a circle with her tail out of the corner of her eye.

"Wait, really?" Abigail did a double-take at Silva.

Sure enough, there was suddenly a sun in the sky.

"Told you." Silva muttered.

"Wh-wh-what the?" Issun stammered.

Abigail suddenly wished Issun were bigger so she could take a picture of his face. It was probably priceless.

"Come to think of it, your name IS Amaterasu... That's the name of the sun god!" Issun exclaimed. "So, it'd follow that you'd have the Sunrise technique from the start. With it, you could even turn night into day..."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Silva muttered.

"I wonder if she's related to Princess Celestia..." Abigail murmured.

"Wow! You're no run-of-the-mill god, that's for sure! The flowing brush is like music from the heavens."

Abigail looked impressed. "That was poetic."

"It was a line from one of my grandfather's poems," he explained. "He felt a skilled artist was like a musician of shape and color. Since you're such a great artist yourself, why don't we name your brushwork after the title of his poem? It's called the Celestial Brush!" He said this last part to Amaterasu.

"Definitely related to Celestia..." Abigail mumbled to herself.

"Well guys, let's get back to the village!" Issun said. "We gotta see if the people are back to normal now!"

"Hm? Who are you?" A voice behind them said. They turned around. "Good lord, not him." Silva groaned. A man with an orange on top of his head was behind them. Another scroll appeared, this one saying: "**Village Elder Mr. Orange**".

Abigail stared at the orange in an almost awestruck manner. "How...?"

"I honestly have no clue." Silva answered, shaking her head.

Abigail frowned. "Someday I'll find out how, I swear it," she vowed, folding her arms.

Mr. Orange walked closer to Ammy. "A white wolf? Not the one who fought that terrible creature with Nagi? You couldn't possibly be the legendary Shiranui!" He shook his head. "No, it can't be... that story is 100 years old. Still... you look a lot like that statue of Shiranui. On the other hand, you don't look quite as smart..."

Silva coughed several times, trying to hide her laughter.

Abigail raised her eyebrows. "That's not something you just _tell _someone..." she mumbled.

"He can't see Ammy's markings, he doesn't know she's a god. He thinks she's just a regular wolf." Silva whispered to Abigail. Abigail nodded in acknowledgement.

Ammy was growling at Mr. Orange now, poised for an attack. He jumped. "Wh-wh-whoa! No need to growl like that! Can you really understand what I'm saying? Well, I'm not one to mince words. I just state the facts!"

"You got that right." Silva muttered.

Abigail's eyebrows flew even higher. "...'_Facts'_? Gee whiz."

Suddenly a black, eerie wind blew past them. Silva looked up, past Mr. Orange to see three demons standing on the cliff in front of them.

"Hmm? What's this sudden chill down my spine?" Mr. Orange said, shivering.

"Here they come, guys!" Issun called. "Those are the monsters that've been plaguing these lands. They sneak into villages and cause all sorts of trouble! Step aside, guys! This is a job for my trusty sword, Denkomaru!" He pulled out said sword.

"...Issun, your sword is barely larger than a needle."

"Not even, more like a toothpick..."

Issun ignored them while Ammy grabbed Mr. Orange, hit the demons with him as they jumped to the platform, and threw him off the platform, re-attaching his orange to his head in the process, which had come off when he had hit the demons.

A barrier came up, surrounding them and trapping them with the demons. Abigail facepalmed and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like a reference to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Silva took out two arm-length swords and attacked one demon while Ammy took care of the other two, getting their floral finishers as well. She looked at Abigail when the barrier came back own, making sure she hadn't been hurt. She hadn't- in fact, she wasn't visible at all until she transformed into her normal self again. "...I was a bug," she explained. "I kind of took the risk of being stepped on, but..."

Silva shrugged. "Alright."

"Wow! You really get aggressive when you're mad, don't you?" Issun exclaimed. Silva assumed he was talking to Ammy and her, because Abigail didn't do anything at all.

Abigail blinked. "That was 'aggressive'?" She queried, surprised. "I don't think that word means what you think it means."

"Quiet, I wasn't talking to you." He snapped. Abigail stuck her tongue out at him. Meanwhile, Silva was leaning over the railing, looking down at something. "Hey, Abigail, come here for a sec." She called. Abigail blinked and went to Silva's side. "Huh?"

Silva pointed to Mr. Orange, who now lay on the ground, unmoving. "I can't tell if he's dead or just knocked out. What do you think?"

Abigail paused. "...Worst case scenario, he died of shock, but I think he's just unconscious."

"Damn."

They walked back to Ammy and Issun, who were now feeding birds.

"Come on, guys! I'll show you around the village!" Issun said.

"You kind of already showed us around, when we were examining all the statue people."

"Well, now I'm going to show you around the village itself. And they aren't statue people, they're villagers."

"Statue people."

"Villagers."

"Statue people."

"Villagers."

"Statue people."

"Villagers."

"I refuse to acknowledge them as anything other than statue people."

"They're statue villagers?" Abigail suggested.

"No, no, because that would mean they-"

Ammy barked again, interrupting them all from their argument.

"...I think we really should get going." Issun said after a short, semi-awkward silence.

"Yeah." And they all walked down the path.

* * *

><p><strong>And it appears that Silva does not like Mr. Orange for some strange reason. O_o And Abigail really needs to learn how to fight. And i'm sorry this is short, I promise the next chapter will be longer.<br>Silva: Read and review - no wait, you just read it... Review please! *holds up cake***  
><strong>Abigail: NO! Don't trust her! IT'S A LIE!<br>Mikey: *smacks Abigail* ^^ Seriously, review.**


	5. Author's Note

Hey, guys.

I'm sorry for not updating enough, it's just that we're really busy, we tend to forget about O:A, we can't write chapters fast enough, our update schedule actually is every two months, and there's just so much stuff that's keeping us from writing.

This means I'm putting O:A on hiatus.

Because we can't put up chapters fast enough, I'm going to stop posting until we reach a reasonable amount of written chapters.

There's also the fact that the lack of reviews discourages me *cough* I mean, really. Over a 100 readers for chapter 4 and only three reviews. And they were all anonymous, at that. (Btw Anonymous Okami freak, here's your cookie cake. *hands cookie cake*) It's not that I need reviews, it's that I'd like to see a little appreciation, or even constructive criticism. (God knows I could use it.) Even a simple "Good job!" would be welcomed.

That said, I bid you all a good day. Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor. *poofs*


	6. Alcoholic Anonymous: Susano

**Mystic: WEEEEEEEEE'RE BAAAAAAAAAAAACK! 8D**  
><strong><br>Mikey: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH HHHHH-**

**Mystic: First off, I'd like to thank all the people that reviewed the A/N chapter. It meant a lot to me that people liked it, even if they didn't review as**  
><strong>much. One day I hope that OA would be as popular as OACA, ALBN and SitM, though that may just be wishful thinking. XD Anyway, COOKIE CAKES FOR<strong>  
><strong>EVERYONE! *throws out cookie cakes*<strong>

**Mikey: Now please help us nurture our tiny community! And please help Abigail and Silva become as famous as Lilac, Celia, and Alex! ...Incidentally, if you've been on deviantArt, you know that Lilac and Celia have ask accounts, where you're able to ask them questions about themselves, or whatever. Well, guess what? So do Silva and Abigail. And Abigail for one is excited about any question, so feel free to run on over there and ask them stuff.  
><strong>

**Mystic: Though Silva may take a bit to reply; I don't have my tablet right now and she feels that simply replying in comments is too boring. Anyway, we don't own anything except our OCs. (Also, I really enjoyed writing this chapter; even if it is long. But hey, long chapter for long absence, amirite?)**

* * *

><p>Silva followed Ammy down the path on foot, and paused to poke Mr. Orange, who was lying in the middle of the path. She seemed very disappointed that he was alive, as he gave a small grunt, but ignored Issun, Abigail and Ammy's questioning looks and moved on.<p>

She looked around at the restored village as they came to the end of the path. It seemed to give off a cheerful air, and she could see it looked a little more lively than it had before. The statue standing in the middle of the small field was now a woman, though she stood so still it seemed as if there was no change.

"That's Mushi's mom." They walked closer, and the woman began talking. "Those stupid demons! They've gone and destroyed my scarecrow! Now I have to stand in this field all day to protect my turnips from the crows!"

"Oh good lord..." Silva muttered, remembering what they would have to do at some point or another to advance in the game. She felt bad for Ammy. They walked off to the side, meeting a small boy running around next to a large, brown dog. "Hm? A white wolf? Now that's just plain weird."

"Yes, ignore the fairy with the silver hair over here," Silva muttered.

"You sure look like weak little buggers…"

Silva snorted.

"Think you could beat my dog, Hayabusa? Well, listen to this…there's this field that my mama tends to, you see…well, Hayabusa managed to dig up 9 turnips in a row, even though my mama was chasing him around and trying to slug him! There are actually 10 turnips in that field…Hayabusa is fixin' to get all 10. Think you can dig up all the turnips in my mama's field? Don't forget, you'll have to avoid being slugged by my mama! I'll admit you're the better canine if you do it!"

Silva really felt bad for Ammy now. Abigail puffed up indignantly and glanced at Ammy. "Are we actually gonna take this lying down?" she demanded, not only of Ammy, but of Silva. "Come on, we've gotta prove how awesome Ammy is!"

"No!" Silva yelped, then covered her mouth hastily. Issun sent her a questioning look. "What's wrong, babe?" Silva just shook her head. "N-nothing..." Issun shrugged, and then said, "Yeah! We're gonna prove how much better Ammy is than some flea-bitten furball! If you two help, we can get it done in no time! Besides, how hard can it be?"

It proved to be very hard, as Mushi's mom immediately ran up and punched the nearest person when they dug up a turnip. Ammy found that if she powerslashed the bucket on top of Mushi's mom's head, it would temporarily stop her, though that didn't prevent Silva and the others from being knocked to the ground several times. By the time they had successfully dug up all 10 turnips, the last of which was pink and a bit deformed, and had avoided being hit by Mushi's mom, not one of them had escaped with a bruise, and Silva in particular was covered in them. She glared at Abigail and the others. "...never. Again." She said through ground teeth, walking away to give Mushi the pink, deformed turnip.

"...I think I'll let Silva make the decisions from now on," Abigail said after a pause in which she nursed a particularly painful bruise on her face. 'Nursing it', as it turned out, was actually just poking it to see how much it hurt. Considering that she muttered "ow" every time she poked it, it hurt quite a bit, which raised the question of why she continued to poke it. But the authoress did not care to elaborate on such a foolish plot point and decided to move on.

"Hey! I thought we decided no fourth wall breaking!" Silva exclaimed, glaring up at the sky.

Shut up, I'm the freaking Great Mikey Weston and I can do what I want. Including making it so that none of you remembered that I broke the fourth wall. Andso the authoress made it so that no one remembered this little tidbit of fourth wall breaking, thus continuing the story.

Technically, it's MY story, so... I can do whatever I want, and I can change little tidbits whenever I want. Which includes keeping Mikey from breaking the fourth wall.

Let's agree to disagree and get on with it.

Let's.

Silva practically threw the turnip at Mushi, and then walked away to go talk to Kushi. "She got a problem?" Mushi asked, watching her walk away with a confused expression on his face. "But anyways, I guess you're the digging kings now, seeing as you guys got the tenth turnip..."

"VICTORY!" Abigail shouted, throwing her fists in the air.

Ammy and Issun went to go talk to Mrs. Orange, Mr. Orange's wife, who had an orange on top of her head as well and was standing next to the river, while Silva continued to talk with Kushi, who was standing in the rice field. Abigail looked around, noticing she was suddenly alone, and pouted, shaking her head sadly. "They always forget me!" she whined, then proceeded to turn on her heel and stride toward Silva, Kushi, and the rice field. "This is where I grow my sake, you know," Kushi was saying. "But I have to manage the harvest all on my own. It's hard work. Maybe I should get Susano to lend a hand again this year... Oh, look at me blabbering on! I just can't help chatting with you!"

No, it's alright," Silva laughed. "I guess you get lonely working in the fields by yourself. It's understandable that you'd want to talk, and end up rambling nonstop." Kushi nodded rapidly. "Yes! That's exactly it! Though, Susano comes to help me sometimes... He's probably training again..."

"Who's Susano?" Silva asked. She knew very well who he was and what he did, but she didn't want to look suspicious. Issun (And probably Ammy as well) would want to know how she knew all about him, or everyone else. Yes, she had told them she knew about the Celestial Brush powers, but that didn't mean she would know about every single person as well. Abigail peered into the conversation with interest. "Hi," she said. "What're we talkin' about?"

"Oh! Hello!" Kushi said, blinking at Abigail's sudden arrival. "Who are you?"

"The name's Abigail. Nice to meetcha!" A friendly grin spread across Abigail's face.

"I'm Kushi. It's nice to meet you, Abigail. Now, where was I...?"

"You were about to tell us about Susano." Silva prompted. "Oh, yes. Thank you. Susano's a neighbor of mine. He's a little unusual, but…he goes around with a huge sword slung over his shoulder. He's always practicing with it. They say he's a descendant of our legendary hero, Nagi. And he loves his sake, too. He often pops around here to buy it. Make sure to say hello when you see Susano. He could use a friend, I should think. He's always on his own." Silva nodded, inwardly grimacing. Susano did anything but practice, and he couldn't even kill a green imp if he tried. "He lives over there, in that house across the river." She pointed. Silva nodded, then said goodbye and dragged Abigail (who showed signs of wanting to make small talk) over to where Issun and Ammy were. "Didja find out anything useful?" Issun asked.

"Not much, just that a guy named Susano lives over in that house." Silva jerked her head to the house which was across the river from them.

"Mrs. Orange here promised us cherry cakes if we go to her house later." Issun said.

Silva frowned slightly. "What are cherry cakes?"

"I'll show you later."

Silva nodded. "I think we're pretty much done, so maybe we should go to Susano's house now...?" She let herself trail off.

"Sounds good to me!" Abigail grinned. Clearly, she was in the mood for conversation, which arose the question of why she couldn't just talk to Silva or something. I'm going to stop before I break the fourth wall again. ...Wait. Shoot. ...This never happened, okay?

"Whadda you guys think?" Abigail, who did not remember the fourth wall breaking in the previous paragraph, queried the rest of the party, sort-of-including-sort-of-excluding Ammy because she couldn't really voice an opinion, being a wolf.

"Sounds great!" Issun exclaimed. "Next stop, Susano's house!" He exclaimed, jumping onto Ammy's head again. Ammy ran over the bridge, Silva close behind, Abigail hot on their heels. Silva looked around as they entered, and noticed a scroll set in a little alcove on the wall. She pushed the scroll aside to see if there was anything behind it.

There was.

"Uh... is that... a picture of Kushi...?" Silva's eye twitched slightly.

"...I'm going to pretend I never saw that..." Issun said, sweatdropping.

"Huh? Wha? What is it?" Abigail tried to peer at the picture.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Silva replaced the scroll and pulled Abigail away from the alcove before she could see what was behind it. Abigail puffed slightly, making a face, and whined a little, but was pulled away anyway. They all jumped down a hole in the floor (found after Ammy had tackled and broken a large container of some sort), and dropped down besides a sleeping Susano.

"...Um." Abigail eyed him awkwardly.

Silva winced at the volume of his snoring.

"I... am the... greatest..." He mumbled.

"Wake up, you great oaf." Silva kicked him. His only response was to snort and cough a bit, and then go back to sleep. Ammy tried tackling him next, but ended up with the same results.

"I can not believe this!" Silva exclaimed.

"Um... maybe we should try yelling," Abigail suggested, folding her arms.

"If tackling him didn't work, I don't think yelling will make a difference." Silva argued, shaking her head.

"I agree with Silva," Issun said. "Let's leave him be for now and find somethin' else to do." Silva and Ammy nodded, and they climbed up the ladder (How Ammy did it, Silva had no idea, but she knew better than to question it.) and back out of Susano's house, where it was now nighttime. When they had all exited, however, Abigail, backed into the house again and snuck toward the alcove. Smirking, she brushed herself off and pulled the scroll away. She let out a shriek, let the scroll fall back, and was silent for several seconds. Then, seeming to vow to pretend this had never happened, quietly walked back outside and caught up with the others.

Silva had looked back, blinking, when she heard a shriek, and raised an eyebrow when Abigail came back out of Susano's house. "You looked at the picture, didn't you." It was a statement.

Abigail simply looked at Silva, expressionless. "...I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," she said bluntly. "I tripped."  
>"...okay." Silva said, looking like she bought it for now, and then ran to catch up with Ammy and Issun (Abigail following), who were inside Mr. and Mrs. Orange's house. They ran inside just in time to see Mrs. Orange float over to the oven in slow motion, and then do a series of punches, before cherry cakes littered the floor. Silva blinked. "...did I miss something here?"<p>

"If we missed something, it was awesome," Abigail replied simply.

"Hey babes! You're just in time to try one of Mrs. Orange's cherry cakes!" Issun said, hopping up and down from where he was eating a cherry cake. Ammy was eating one as well, and seemed to be enjoying it. Silva picked one up from the floor and hesitantly bit into it. "...this is good!" She said, after a few seconds' pause. She quickly finished it, licking her fingers afterward. Abigail, who had looked quite put off about being addressed as a babe, snatched a cherry cake and almost threw it at Issun. Instead, after Silva pronounced the food to be good, Abigail ate the cherry cake in her hand with a smirk on her face. Silva grabbed a few oranges in the corner of the room, put it in the small satchel she had been wearing when they had been teleported into the game, and followed Issun and Ammy outside, where she watched the sun rise for a few seconds. She wondered briefly if time flew by as fast as it did in the game. If it did, she hadn't noticed, because she felt exploring the village and talking to various people had taken a few hours. The nights certainly went by quickly, though, that was certain.

"Heeeeey!" Abigail whined, once she had walked out of the house. "We didn't get to sleep!"

"Abigail, the nights can't last more than an hour. I think we should wait a bit before taking a nice long rest." Silva replied. Perhaps another day or two, she thought. She wasn't sure if they were normally short, or if there would maybe be a long night where they could sleep.

Abigail grumbled for a moment, then sighed. "Eventually we're gonna start feeling drunk on awake," she muttered. "We'll have to rest then. Hopefully there's gonna be a time where that's possible."

Silva nodded, then looked at Issun. "Is there anything else we have to do here, or can we go now?"

"We should probably go now." Issun said, and then Ammy started to run, following the path that led past Susano's house, to the entrance of Kamiki village... only to find it was blocked by a huge boulder. And for some strange reason, there was a portly man trying to push it. "...what the heck?" Silva said, bewildered.

"Heave! Heave! This is weird! My mind really wants to shift this rock, but my body won't cooperate. It's like I'm made of lead!" The man said, still pushing.

SUDDENLY IMPS. IN CHRISTMAS COLORS.

Thus Silva and Ammy got into battle stances and prepared to finally take the Christmas decorations down, Silva half-expecting Abigail to hide. And take them down they did, Silva escaping with only a few cuts here and there, Ammy being completely unharmed thanks to her God charm things. Abigail, who had transformed into a wolf like Ammy, but in a tawny color with her ribbon tied around her neck, had managed to land a few hits before being sent off to hide. She peered out of the shadows once the battle was over, in her original form once more. "...You guys need to teach me how to fight better," she whined.

Silva sighed. "We do," She began. "Otherwise you're going to get yourself killed at some point or another." She turned toward the man, who was now sitting on the side of the road.

"Ah, I feel light as a feather now!" He said. "Sadly, that doesn't make it any easier to move this boulder. Who went and decided to put this here, anyway?"

Silva bit her tongue to keep from blurting out Susano's name.

"There's no way I can get back to the city now." He continued, sighing. He suddenly turned to Silva. "Say, you're this wolf's owner, right?"

Silva tried to keep a straight face. It was hard.

"If you live in this village, then you must know Susano! Can you get him to come here? They say he's a descendant of the legendary warrior Nagi."

"Descendant of Nagi, my foot." Silva heard Issun mutter. Abigail blinked. "Huh...?"

"If anyone can do anything about this rock, it's him."

"I find that hard to believe." Someone muttered.

The orange-and-red arrow suddenly appeared in front of Ammy. Silva jumped backwards into Abigail, not expecting it to appear again. Abigail in turn managed to jump back barely in time to avoid a collision. Ammy ran after the arrow, Silva and Abigail close behind her, and it unsurprisingly led them to Susano's house.

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Silva muttered, jumping down the hole for the second time. Abigail cast the alcove a nasty, furtive glare before jumping down after Silva.

"I swear, if he doesn't wake up this time I am taking a sake bottle and smashing it on his face." Silva muttered, kicking his side again. "Oy! Wake up!" She yelled, then yelped and took a step backward when he suddenly sat up.

"What the? Huh?" He stood up and stretched. "Ah... I feel so well-rested!"

"...Cool story bro," Abigail mumbled, blinking at him.

"...I'm seriously starting to wonder if there's something wrong with his eyesight. I mean, we're right in front of him!" Silva practically yelled.

However, Susano continued talking before he even realized they were in the room. "I planned to meditate underground before I fell fast asleep!"

"We're right here..." Abigail said, a little loudly, frowning.

He suddenly looked down at Ammy and the others. "Huh? And what business do you have with Susano, the greatest warrior ever?"

Another random scroll came down, this one saying: "**The Great Warrior Susano**"

Abigail was suddenly very tempted to start up a round of I Can Do Anything (Better Than You).

"Get a load of this guy," Silva muttered. "Greatest warrior ever, my ass."

Susano looked down at Ammy. "Huh? Have even the beasts heard of my great exploits now?"

Silva was silent for a moment before doing a double facepalm. Abigail almost instantly followed suit after the previous sentence had processed properly.

"Well, Fido, lasses? I have no time for apprentices. Go home!"

Abigail looked as though she were trying very hard not to hurt him. Silva gaped. "Does he seriously think we came for apprenticeships?!"

"I have no time for a mangy mutt and two simple lasses." Susano muttered, lying back down.

Abigail proceeded to look as if she were going to go homicidal.

Ammy had a different idea, however. She picked him up and placed him on her back, somehow managing to climb the ladder with Susano not falling off. "H-hey! What do you think you're doing?-! Put me down this instant! What will the neighbors think?-!"

Silva got a sudden, evil idea. She ran after Ammy, stopping her just outside the door. "Ammy, can we please go talk to the other villagers?" She had a hopeful look in her eyes. Abigail proceeded to laugh uproariously at this notion. "DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT!" Ammy seemed to give a resigned sigh, and went to go talk to Kushi. Silva started giggling furiously and went to go follow her. Abigail cheered, pumping her fists in the air.

"Oh, hello, Susano." Kushi greeted, looking up from her harvesting. "Looks like you made a good pal there. Snowy really seems to like you."  
>"Uh.. y-yeah..." Susano muttered, a blush covering his face. Kushi went back to work and hadn't noticed. Silva, however, had, and almost fell to the ground in a fit of silent giggles. Abigail was trying very hard to breathe, but was having difficulty due to her laughter. "My... stomach hurts..." she managed to pant, grinning broadly.<p>

The villagers all seemed to have varying degrees of reactions to Susano's spastic ride on Ammy's back. The hilarity seemed to go on forever as they went to visit all of the people in Kamiki Village to see what they had to say.

"Boy, you're sure weird, Susano. Is that supposed to be some new kind of training or what?" Mushi asked casually.

"It better not be you messin' up my garden, Susano! You'll get a good thumpin' if it is!" Mushi's mom shouted.

"I-I hope you are not mistreating that fine wolf!" Komuso sputtered.

"Oh…Susano! That sure looks like fun! But shouldn't you be practicing your swordplay?" Mrs. Orange queried curiously.

"Susano! Stop frolicking around. The day is meant for work. Come give me a hand if you have time to waste like that!" Mr. Orange scolded.

By the time they were finished, even Issun was laughing, and Silva was panting heavily and clutching her stomach, leaning against Ammy for support. Abigail, once they had finished talking to everyone, fell over and full-out began to ROFL. "Ok... I think... I'm good now..." Silva panted, and then stood (somewhat) upright. Ammy gave them both a look that plainly said: "Are you two done now?"

Apparently not. Silva was okay, but Abigail was still ROFLing.

Silva walked over and nudged Abigail with the toe of her shoe. "Come on. I think we should go do what were were supposed to do in the first place."

"...O... okay... I think I'm fine now..." Abigail managed to sit up, and wheezed a little, but got up and brushed herself off. Silva snorted and beckoned for Abigail to get up and follow her to the rock where they were supposed to bring Susano. Once they had gotten there, Ammy put Susano down, and he jumped up and glared at the party.

"You mangy mutt and lasses! You brought me all the way here just to test yourselves against me?"

"Aaaaaaactually, no..." Abigail trailed lightly.

"Please. I could defeat you with one hand tied behind my back." Silva muttered.

"Prepare to taste the wrath of my trusty blade, Tohenboku!" Susano continued.

"Wait, but I just said NO-"

"H-hold on a minute!" The merchant interrupted. "You're the legendary Susano?"

"Yep! None other than Susano, the greatest warrior who ever lived! And by the way, never interrupt warriors engaged in battle!"

"For the record, that has got to be the wisest thing he's said yet," Abigail mumbled. "Mind you, I mean the 'never interrupt warriors engaged in battle' part."

Silva snorted when she heard Abigail's mumbling.

"But I've got a favor to ask you. This huge boulder blocking the path is really getting in my way. Can't you do something about it?"

"What?" The shock was evident in his voice.

"Come on! Please! I mean, you are Nagi's descendant, aren't you? Surely one stone's no match for your mighty skills, right?" The merchant wheedled.

"Hmm…it is certainly not beyond my ability."

"_Yes it is_," Abigail coughed.

Silva snorted again.

Issun snickered.

Ammy simply rolled her eyes.

"Really? Great! Okay, then! No time like the present. Go for it!"

"Wait!" Susano started sweating bullets. Abigail was vaguely reminded of Phoenix Wright. "A boulder of this size is not very easy, even for me. This will require my utmost focus to magnify the power of my sword. I shall retire to the training grounds to make preparations. Wait for my return." Then he ran off.

"...Who here thinks he's going to do anything but train?" Silva asked. Abigail's hand shot into the air almost at once.

"I've never seen this guy train seriously…ever..." Issun said slowly, reinforcing Silva's question. Ammy yawned, then started wagging her tail as if she was agreeing.

"...we're going to go pester him until he cuts down the rock, aren't we?"

"Yep!" Issun replied, then hopped on Ammy, who immediately ran towards Susano's house. Silva ran after them, and Abigail jumped when she realized they were running and proceeded after them.

It didn't take long to find Susano; he was lying down behind his house, drinking from a jug of sake. He started talking to himself by the time the party reached him. Abigail flat out stared blankly at him.

"I know I told that merchant I could help, but a boulder of that size? I don't care if I'm of a legendary bloodline, it's just too big!" He looked inside the jug of sake, then tried shaking it to get more to come out, but it was completely empty. "Oh no! I can't believe I'm out of sake at a time like this! This won't do one bit." He threw it over his shoulder. "That's it for today. I'll just have to train tomorrow. I can't train without sake to fuel the fire, after all! 'Why do today what you can do tomorrow?' That's doing things the Susano way! Hah ha ha ha!"

"...But what if it's tomorrow, and then he does the same thing, over and over and over? Would that mean he never gets stuff done? Or would he actually get up and do it...?" Silva mused.

Abigail's eye twitched. "What is today, but yesterday's tomorrow..." she muttered, folding her arms and glaring disapprovingly at Susano.

"Sake? Hmm…" Issun trailed. "Oh yeah! This village has a sake brewing girl, doesn't it?"

Abigail raised her eyebrows and turned to Issun. Silva, on the other hand, rolled her eyes. "The sake brewing girl has a name, Issun."

"Shut up, I haven't been to Kamiki in a while." Issun argued.

"Says the guy who was hiding inside Sakuya's robe for who-knows-how-long," Silva said under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Abigail decided now would be a good time to interrupt. "So then, let's go get the lazy self-absorbed dweeb some sake. And why does Susano need sake to train, anyway?" she huffed. "Isn't that like... counter-productive?"

Silva shook her head. "I've learned not to question things like this, Abigail. Don't bother trying to figure it out." She vaguely recalled a fanfic where the character had called it "Physics-defying Nippon". She didn't know about the physics part, but she knew that she would soon start calling Nippon "Logic-defying Nippon". Honestly, the amount of things that didn't make sense in Nippon was overwhelming, even if they happened much later. And she was really starting to say "Nippon" too much. The word no longer made sense. Nippon Nippon Nippon. Mikey, stop it.  
>What? It really doesn't mean anything anymore! Nippon Nippon Nippon Nippon Nippon... it's like saying grass too much! Or cupcake! CUPCAKE! CUPCAKE CUPCAKE CUPCAAAAKE!<p>

Nippon is ancient Japanese for Japan. ...I think. And stop with the MLP:FiM references.

Well, excuuuuse me princess for just finishing Read It and Weep. ...Back to the story.

The small group walked towards Kushi's rice fields, and Kushi started petting Ammy as soon as she was within reach. "Oh, hello there." she said to Silva and Abigail. "I've got a bit of a problem, you know."

"Really? What is it?" Silva asked, as Abigail gave a concerned frown.

"I have to polish the rice in the mill house before I can use it." Kushi continued. "But the mill's broken. A monster broke it the other day. It's hopeless trying to make good sake without clean rice."

"Wow, that's too bad." Issun commented.

"I should have never let that monster try my new thunder brew. A broken mill and flattened crops. That's all the thanks I get."

"Why did she even give sake to a monster in the first place...?" Silva asked. Abigail's mouth pushed into a sort of pout, as if she agreed entirely.

"Don't go giving monsters sake! They're bad enough sober!" Issun exclaimed. Silva privately agreed with him. Silva then looked at Ammy, but she had already used Rejuvenation on the mill, and they could hear it turning again. Kushi went to go look at it. "What's this? The mill's been mended! Who on earth did that?"

_Ammy, thank-you-very-much._ Silva thought.

"I'd completely given up on the idea of making my sake. But now I can get on with polishing the rice. Well, there's no time like the present! I better getstarted." Kushi exclaimed, and then walked back into the mill house.

"Well, let's go get the sake," stated Issun. They walked into the mill, and of course Ammy had to be petted before Kushi talked again.

"You're interested in how to brew sake, are you, Snowy, Silva, Abigail? Well, this thing here's for polishing the rice, you see." Kushi gestured toward an odd thing next to her. Silva couldn't tell what it was. "Oh, I'll tell you what. I've got something I think you'll like. Hee hee. It's just some leftover stock from the store, but I made it myself! It's called Vista of the Gods! Oh, but are any of you even old enough to drink?"

Abigail remained silent.

"Well..." Silva trailed off, looking to the side. "I'm old enough, I can tell you that." In the end, Silva was the one who wound up carrying the jug of sake. They all walked back to Susano's house, and he jumped up as soon as he saw Silva carrying the sake.

"Hm? Hold it right there, lass! That smell…is that Kushi's famous homebrewed sake?"

Silva tossed him the jar.

"Lassie! Did you bring me some of Kushi's sake? Of, what a glorious day! Ah…good ol' sake! A man without a drink is like a warrior without his trusty sword! In fact, it is said that Nagi himself relied on the power of sake in his battle with the dreaded Orochi." He quickly drained the jug of sake.

"It's kind of sad that a legendary hero can't fight without being drunk." Silva said, shaking her head. Abigail nodded sadly in agreement.

"It's all so clear now! Let the training begin! I'll just try a bit of my usual routine. Okay, here I come!" Susano declared. Ammy powerslashed the dummies that

Susano attacked. He even went after a rock.

"Huh?" He gasped in shock when the rock was sliced in two. But he quickly regained his composure and ran off the entrance of the village. "Hiyaaaah!"

"After him! Quick!" Issun urged.

Silva grabbed Abigail's arm and ran after Susano with Ammy.

They got there just in time to see him begin his attack.

"Susano-style…Exploding Implosion!" he yelled as he jumped at the rock.

"'Exploding Implosion'?" Silva asked, one eyebrow raised.

Abigail's eyes bulged and she held her head as if she were in pain, making a soft whining noise as she did so. "It's a paradox! There IS no answer! That attack won't work!"

With a swish of Ammy's tail, the boulder fell apart in two pieces. Abigail removed her hands from her head as if the pain was gone because of this.

"Th-th-that's amazing!" The merchant exclaimed. Susano was just staring at his sword with a bewildered look, examining it as if wondering what on earth had just done that. "You sliced that huge rock clean in half! You really are something!"

"Nice job, idio- I mean, Susano!" Abigail exclaimed, crossing her fingers behind her back.

Issun played along. "Wow! I didn't think ya could do it, pops!"

"...Me either," Susano replied, then realized his mistake and coughed to cover it up. "Er…I mean, of course I could! After all, I am Susano, the greatest warrior ever!"

"You weren't just showing off when you said you're Nagi's Descendant! Someone like you'd have no problem fighting off monsters, huh?" The merchant continued. Susano started to sweat bullets again. "Well, anyways, thanks a lot. Now I can start doing business again."

"Did you say m-m-monsters?" Susano stuttered. "Oh, uh…of course! No problem! This is a job for the most skilled warrior in all of Nippon! Yes! I shall rid these lands of their vile presence! Just sit back and watch the great Susano work his magic!" And then he ran off to Shinshu Field, cackling the entire way.

"He shouldn't get all puffed up. He's nothing without us." Issun commented. "Think he'll be okay? The monsters outside the village are nasty."

"He'll be fine." Silva said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. "People that cocky or stupid just never seem to die."

"Like Kolorado..." Abigail whined, thinking of the idiotic explorer Koopa from Paper Mario.

"Ah…glorious Amaterasu…and Silva and Celeste, too." They all turned around at the sound of Sakuya's voice. "What a pleasure to witness your heroic deeds! I am in awe. When you cleaved the boulder in two, my heart skipped a beat. To see your skills with the brush is to be witness to great art."

Abigail tried to pretend that she was totally a goddess and there was no way she could be anything else other than a goddess.

Issun jumped off of Ammy's head and bounced excitedly in front of her several times. "Yeah? So do we get a reward or something, lady?"

Sakuya gave Issun a rather scathing, disapproving look. "...I hardly think your participation had any impact, little bug," she replied testily.

"It's_ Issun! _Issun, Issun, _Issun! _Stop calling me a bug!" Issun cried indignantly, hopping up and down rapidly as he steamed, his aura an angry crimson. "I'll crawl back into your kimono if you say that again!"

Sakuya gave a slight flinch that looked suspiciously like a flail and turned away slightly, covering her chest with her arms. "My word!"

Abigail found this exchange strangely amusing and stifled a giggle.

"Aw relax, lady. Furball here's more comfy anyway." Ammy turned her head slightly, trying to see Issun, who had jumped back onto her head a little earlier. But then he jumped onto the ground again.

Silva rolled her eyes at Issun's constant moving around.

"Let's get back to that reward thing you were talking about," Issun continued eagerly. Amaterasu squished Issun with her paw, and Issun flailed beneath said paw. "C'mon, Ammy. Put your paw up or something." He spazzed out when Ammy didn't move. "Go on, shake!"

Silva couldn't help but laugh. Abigail didn't bother to stifle her giggling this time.

"I must apologize." Sakuya started to speak again. "I would like to reward you, but I'm afraid I haven't the power. I can barely muster enough strength to make a flower bloom." She gestured to her tree. It was completely bare. There were no pink petals, or even leaves for that matter, on it at all. It was a highly depressing sight. "Though my body stands firmly here within the confines of the village, my roots spread far and side, protecting the remote areas outside. These parts of me are known as guardian saplings. They collect the praise and adoration that gives me strength. The recent evil is eroding the guardian saplings…if this continues, I will wilt away as well, and my power will vanish. Worse yet, the dark power grows stronger with each passing day. Life as we know it will be consumed utterly in no time."

_She makes it sound even worse in reality than in the game... _Silva thought. _...maybe it's just because if we screw up, there's no save point to restart at. We die, that's it, there's no coming back.  
><em>

"Great and powerful Amaterasu, Silva and Celeste! Could I be so bold as to request your assistance in rejuvenating these guardian saplings by lifting the curse that enslaves them?" Sakuya pleaded, bowing her head humbly to the three aforementioned... whatever they could be called collectively.

Silva nodded. Abigail curtsied and replied that it would be an honor.

"I shall mark the locations of nearby saplings on your map."

"Wait, we have a map?" Silva asked. Sakuya suddenly handed her a convenient scroll.

"Here, I'll take it." Issun grabbed the scroll.

Silva wondered how he was actually able to hold the thing, considering how small he was.

"I have grown tired…I haven't even the strength to speak now. I hope that my request has not fallen on deaf ears…" _No, just tiny ones, fairy ones and... shapeshifter ones?_ Silva thought.

"Amaterasu…Silva…Celeste... may the fresh scent of flowers protect you always!" Sakuya bowed her head again, then disappeared.

"Ooh... flowers... that sounds like a nice protection barrier thingy..." Abigail beamed.

"...'protection barrier thingy'?" Silva repeated, looking at Abigail with one eyebrow raised.

Abigail just pouted.

"Bah…I'm always itchin' for a good fight, but…I sure don't wanna poke my nose into this mess!" Issun was talking to himself. "Still, I'm stuck with these three here until I get all the brush skills…"

"First sign of madness: talking to yourself," Abigail muttered under her breath, unaware that this basically made her a hypocrite.

Ammy yawned and sat up. Issun jumped on Ammy's nose and started to talk again. "Anyway, they're gods and all…what could possibly go wrong? Guys, were you listening to her? You three can get the rest of the brush techniques to save the world, and I'll steal 'em and learn 'em! Yeah, that's the ticket!"

"Lazy," Abigail huffed.

Silva rolled her eyes.

"At any rate, let's start by following these marks on the map."

Silva looked at the map, noting the spots where the red marks were. "Let's go! ONWARD TO SHINSHU FIELD!" Silva yelled, running down the path. Abigail cackled and followed Silva, repeating the beloved catchphrase as she ran after her.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Issun yelled. Ammy got up and followed them, easily overtaking the two girls.

* * *

><p><strong>Mystic: So... many... references... *dead* <strong>**It feels good to be updating again, though. *cougheventhoughwegotdistract edbyFourSwordscough***

**Mikey: You can never have enough Four Swords, I'm afraid. :/**  
><strong><br>Abigail: Yeah, I guess. But come on, I'm on a new adventure, this is fun, and you ought to be happier for me! *whine***  
><strong><br>Mikey: Okay, sorry. We'll definitely pack the updates on some more, 'kay? ^-^**

**Silva: *holds up cake* Reviewers get cake! ...or the food of their choice. Whichever works.**


	7. A Shapeshifter's Rage

**Mystic: Hi, people. So, yes, I know this took a good while to update, but that was mainly because I was waiting for reviews. Of which we only got one. ONE. And all it said was "Awesome story!"  
>Mikey: Y U NO REVIEW?! *sobs*<br>Mystic: *patpats Mikey* Yeah, what's up with that? We give you an extra long chapter and we get one review? Really, guys, I am disappoint.**

* * *

><p>Silva stopped dead in her tracks as she entered Shinshu Field. "O... oh my gosh..."<p>

Shinshu Field was completely dead. All the trees were black and lifeless, there were no animals, the grass was brown and withered, and everything was covered in a cursed zone. Abigail let out a cry of horror.

"Huh?" Issun gasped. "You probably know this already, but this here is Shinshu Field, the most beautiful field in Nippon. At least, it's supposed to be…but ever since that incident, I've been getting a bad vibe. We better watch where we're going. Just tell me if you wanna see the map and I'll show it to you. Let's pay attention to it as we push ahead."

They started walking, but didn't get that far before Issun stopped them again. "Look, that's the Guardian Sapling marked on our map!"

Silva looked at where Issun's toothpick of a sword was pointing and saw what looked like a smaller version of the Konohana tree.  
>Issun continued talking. "It's supposed to be a place for travelers to rest and recuperate, but just look at it! It looks like it could fall over at any moment! This place is definitely cursed from the looks of it! Places where evil has taken hold, luring monsters from far and wide, are known as cursed zones. But I've never seen one this big before. It's withered all the plant life in the area, including that big tree! It'd take a monster with powers beyond even a god to do this!" He was quiet for a second. "That tree's an offshoot of Sakuya. It protects nature in the area. Maybe the natural beauty here would return if we revived it…but how the heck could we do that, anyway?"<p>

Silva quickly ran through the events of Okami in her mind. "...maybe we should go check up on the other one?" She suggested, albeit a little hesitantly.

"...that's not a bad idea." Issun said slowly, as if he didn't want to admit it. Which he probably didn't.

"Hey, what's that?" Abigail suddenly asked, pointing towards a nearby demon scroll with a slightly amused look. "It looks kinda funny..."

Silva's eyes widened as she spotted the demon scroll heading towards them, and she grabbed Abigail's hand, pulling her along with a yell of "RUN!" as the group ran as fast as they could away from the scroll.

"I'm guessing you know what it is, since you ran away pretty fast..." Issun noted. Silva nodded breathlessly while Abigail tilted her head in confusion.

"It's a demon scroll," She explained quietly to Abigail, once they had all regained their breath and started walking again. "Do you remember when we fought that group of demons after meeting Mr. Orange?"

Abigail nodded at once. "Is it kinda like that?" she asked, her eyes widening slightly.

"Kind of. Basically, you touch a demon scroll, you get transported to the demon world and you have to fight a small group of demons. Once you kill all the demons in that particular scroll then you're able to leave. But I suggest you stay away from them, because they're not all as weak as green imps."

Abigail nodded solemnly in response. They walked along the path, near the cursed zone, and Silva was struck with a sudden, stupid idea.

"I'll be right back." She said, walking towards the eerie red and black clouds that were hovering nearby.

"H-Hey!" Abigail frowned and ran hurriedly after her. "Wait!"

"What are you doing?" Issun asked, and bounced from his perch on Ammy's head to Silva's shoulder.

"I just want to see what it looks like inside." Silva replied, not bothering to flick Issun off her shoulder. Abigail stopped dead as soon as she heard this, and watched her anxiously.

Silva stepped into the nearest cloud, and everything instantly went dark. She looked around with wide eyes, amazed at how different everything looked from inside the cursed zone. The sky was red, the ground was black, and wisps of blue smoke was coming from the ground.

"Holy cow!" Issun yelled. "This is bad! It looked like your regular old curse zone from back there, but the evil here is much worse close up! It would curse a normal person in a flash!"

"Ngh," Silva fell to her hands and knees, feeling herself getting weaker by the second.

"It's even robbing you of your power!" Issun exclaimed, getting up from where he was on the ground, having been thrown from Silva's shoulder when she fell. "Come on, we'd better get out, quick!" He said, bouncing in front of Silva. She nodded slowly and crawled towards the end of the cloud. Thankfully she hadn't gone too far in, so she was able to get out fairly quickly, though she was still weak. She fell forward onto the ground, wanting to just lay there and sleep. Ammy ran up and, after a brief check to make sure she wasn't hurt, started licking Silva's face. Abigail also hurried toward Silva and knelt beside her. "H-Hey! Silva!" Her eyes were round. "Why'd you do that?-! That thing looked like pure evil and- hey, are you okay? You look sick or something...!"

"I feel sick..." Silva muttered, her face buried in the ground. "And tired..."

"Do you think you'll be able to walk anytime soon?" Issun questioned. "Or fly?"

"Mmf." Silva said unintelligibly.

"I'll take that as a no." Issun sighed.

Abigail proceeded to look highly concerned and have a minor freak out.

Ammy picked up the limp fairy and placed her on her back, then continued walking to the left of the Guardian Sapling, towards a small house near the river, which was now an ugly brown. Abigail continued to look anxious and was mumbling to herself as she followed Ammy, also while trying to keep an eye on Silva.

Ammy walked up to the man that was in front of the house, chopping wood. "What just happened?-!" He asked, seemingly oblivious to the young girl slumped over on the wolf's back. "I was just out here chopping wood and communing with nature,"

"I approve of this guy." Silva mumbled.

"when I heard a loud rumbling like an earthquake from the lake. Then a huge gust of wind came out of nowhere. I don't know what happened next, but when I came to, it was like this. My art workshop was just across the stream there, but it vanished when this cursed zone appeared. The earth must be angry." The Nameless Man hung his head sadly. "All I want is to live with nature in peace, man."

Sounds like a hippie, Abigail thought brightly, despite her concern for Silva.

"But now I can't. I noticed a figure running from the lake toward Kamiki. Whoever it was, man, I hope mother earth kept them safe." He was about to go back to his work, but Ammy barked at him. Again.

"What's up, nature buddy?" the Nameless Man asked.

"Space buddy..." Abigail grinned to herself.

"Curious about that cave? It's the entrance to a place called Hana Valley, the site of an amazing waterfall. But monsters have moved in now. There's a trippy crystal ball that makes plants grow enshrined there. You'd think gardeners would be flocking here for it! Actually, not long ago that Susano guy went marching in there. It's weird. Normally, he runs away at the sight of monsters. And he hardly seems the type to try his hand at gardening. Anyway, it's bad karma, man. You could be attacked if you went in."

"...we're going to go follow him, aren't we." Silva sighed.

"Yep!" Issun chirped.

"Don't wanna..." Abigail whined.

"Why not?" Silva asked.

Abigail looked down. "...'cause he's stupid," she mumbled.

"He may be stupid, but we need him for plot progression." Silva argued.

Issun and Ammy stared at her. "...what?"

Silva realized what she said and shook her head. "Nothing."

Issun continued to give her weird looks while Ammy simply shrugged and kept walking up the path, which just so happened to lead to Hana Valley. Abigail was forced to suck it up and mutinously followed them, pouting slightly as she did so.

Ammy opened a chest with a traveler's charm inside, and then they crossed a bridge to find a group of imps partying around a campfire.

"Aw, that looks fun," Abigail mumbled. "Too bad they'll kill us if we approach."

"...you seriously haven't noticed the barrier?-!" Silva yelled from her spot on Ammy, who was currently attacking a red imp with Silva brutally attacking the green imp next to it.

"No, what ba- EEP!" Abigail scampered away from the battle as she noticed what was going on.

"My god, you're ignorant!" Silva said, as Ammy leaped over Abigail to attack the last imp.

When the fight was over, the area to the left of them was restored. The water cleared up and a small island appeared... but then a black mist came over it, and it was as if nothing happened.

"Huh?" Issun stared at the area. "We got rid of the monsters, so why did the gods' power disappear? Guess the curse on the gods is really strong here. They can't intervene till we do something about this stagnant air."

Abigail tilted her head and waved her hand in the air. "...It seems like it's moving to me," she said dubiously. No one answered her.  
>Silva sighed. "Dangit..."<p>

A few minutes later, while they were still walking along the path, the came across a very strange thing.

"Is that tree moving?" Silva asked, staring at the aforementioned tree. The tree then threw what looked like a flaming fruit at Ammy, which instead hit Silva, who gave a startled yelp, and knocked her off the wolf.

"OW DAMMIT THAT HURT!" She yelled, clutching her shoulder.

"This is reminding me so much of the Wizard of Oz..." Abigail trailed lightly, though she was a couple of feet away with a cautious look on her face.

The tree threw another fruit at Ammy, but she simply Powerslashed it so it hit the tree.

"Heh heh…" Issun chuckled. "Looks like it's wearing a taste of its own medicine! Let's pass on by this creepy old tree while we can!"  
>Ammy grabbed the back of Silva's shirt and dragged her past the tree, the fairy still complaining about her shoulder, albeit much more quietly.<p>

(Scene transition because laziness)

"Why is that picture covered in red lines?" Silva asked, staring up at the large mural in front of them. She was now standing by herself, having declared that she felt she was able to hold her own weight again.

Issun was about to reply when they were interrupted by yet another group of imps, this time with a yellow imp.

"Oh come on!" Silva threw her hands up.

"Why do all these guys carry instruments?" Abigail wondered as she struggled to stay out of the action.

"...that is a very good question." Silva replied, cutting a green imp in half, while Ammy was running in circles along the edge of the barrier.

"They could form a band," Abigail pointed out brightly. "That'd be cool. 'Impster and the Implings'... or somethin' like that..."

"What kind of a name is that?!" Silva yelled, while running around trying to avoid the yellow imp's bombs.

"A cool name!" Abigail answered eagerly while clapping her hands together excitedly, as if the imps had decided right then and there that they would form a band. "I mean, can you imagine that?! That'd be so cool! I'd go see them!"

"Why are we even talking about this?!" Silva asked incredulously, sparring with the other green imp. The imp suddenly fell over, and Silva blinked. "Wha-?-!"

Ammy barked excitedly from behind the imp.

"I should have known." Silva muttered, rubbing Ammy's ears affectionately.

"Yay, Ammy!" Abigail cheered, and proceeded to head over to Ammy and pet her as well.

Susano turned around from where he was pushing a wall, for some strange reason. "Huh? What's all that racket?" He suddenly noticed the group behind him. "Oh, it's you, mutt and lasses. Go home! I told you, I'm not looking for apprentices."

"Who said we wanted to be your apprentices?-!" Silva demanded.

"Hana Valley is no place for a mutt like you." Susano continued. "Beyond this point is my secret training ground. It's the perfect place to hide-"

Ammy leaned forward slightly, while Issun and Silva snickered. Abigail put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows.

"Er… I mean, to train!" He cleared his throat. "Now scoot! Be off with ya!" He took out his sword at swung it at them, making Ammy jump back and Silva scoot out of the sword's range. Abigail blew a raspberry at Susano.

Issun hopped over to the wall painting Silva had noticed earlier. "Wow…check out that wall painting. It's said that a crystal sphere that makes trees grow is enshrined somewhere around here. Based on this picture here, the rumor must be true. Still, something's not right." He jumped back onto Ammy.

"And what would that be?" Silva asked sarcastically.

Issun, of course, ignored her. "Don't you think there's something missing from this painting?"

"Nope."

"Will you just shut up?-!"

"Nope." Silva grinned, watching Issun hop up and down angrily.

Abigail flailed her arms. "Can we pleeeease get along right now? I wanna know what's goin' on here, because I'm clueless, and you guys aren't helping."

The rock Susano was trying to push suddenly exploded.

Everyone looked at Ammy, who had her tail in the air. She gave a wolfish grin and looked pointedly at the mural, which no longer had red lines.

"Yay, Ammy!" Abigail cheered again as she ran over to pet Ammy, again. She gave Silva and Issun a slight glare as she huffed, "At least someone here knows how to be helpful!"

Silva tried and failed to look innocent.

"I don't want any more arguing," Abigail growled, folding her arms. "Or else."

"What in heaven's name?-!" Susano exclaimed from the other side of the room. "How did that happen? Well, now I can go hide-" he cleared his throat again. "Er… I mean, now I can go train!"

This was very helpful, as it redirected Abigail's irritation onto Susano, and she instead trained her oddly vicious glare on him. Silva snickered again as he ran down the newly found path, probably to hide from Abigail's wrath.

Silva pointed toward the path. "Onward to-... ...what are we going to?"

"The Guardian Sapling?" Issun offered.

"Onward to the Guardian Sapling!" Silva yelled, and then ran down the path after Susano.

Ammy barked and ran after her.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Issun yelled, hopping after Ammy, since the abruptness of her leaving gave him no time to get on the wolf's head.

"H-Hey!" Abigail yelped as she darted after Silva and Ammy, having gotten a slow start due to her clumsiness. "Wait up! Issun, quick, on my shoulder!"

Issun gladly took the offer and bounced up her arm to settle on her shoulder.

(Scene Transition is being overused.)

Silva waited for Abigail at the top of the cliff, having done some sort of complicated aerial flip to the top a few minutes prior. Abigail finally managed to climb her way to the top, not wanting to suddenly turn into a bird and cause Issun to topple off her shoulder. She sat on the floor for a few moments, panting. "...You couldn't... have... waited...?" Abigail managed to choke out, breathless as she was. She glared slightly at Silva. "Gee... whiz..."

"I waited for you here, didn't I?" Silva managed to say with a straight face.

Ammy hit her with her tail.

"Owwwwww," Silva whined, rubbing her arm.

"You deserve it," Abigail huffed as she got to her feet, still breathing a little hard.

Issun was snickering at the whole conversation, still standing on Abigail's shoulder.

"And don't make me flick you off," Abigail threatened Issun, turning her head to glare at him. "You're the reason I couldn't just turn into a bird and fly up here. I was being nice."

That shut him up very quickly.

Silva turned and kept walking down the path, walking for a short while before she came out in a very large and spacious room. The only thing in it was a small, green sprout.

"What a strange place! Is this really the secret training ground Susano mentioned?" Issun piped up, looking around.

"Issun, knowing Susano, this place is probably just some cavern he found by accident." Silva replied.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Hey, where'd Pops go, anyway?"

"Pops?"

"Shush."

_Oh the comparison between Susano and Pops from Regular Show. Other than the fact that there is none._ Abigail looked amused.

Silva walked towards the small sapling, and Issun quickly bounced from Abigail's shoulder to Silva's head.

"Hm? I smell a faint scent like Sakuya's coming from the sapling!"

"Scent...?" Abigail repeated, tilting her head.

"Only you would know Sakuya has a scent, Issun."

"Quiet. Anyway, why would a Guardian Sapling be so tiny like this? I mean, that wall painting had a magnificent tree in it!"

"Just because it was in the painting, doesn't necessarily mean it's in real life."

"Will you just be quiet?-!"

"Why should I take orders from you?"

Abigail looked like she was beginning to blow a gasket.

While Issun and Silva were arguing and Abigail's brain was frying, Ammy ran off into one of the tunnels and found Susano facing a bear on a green crystal. Ball. Thing.

"Hey, what's goin' on?" Abigail asked as she followed Ammy into the tunnel, leaving Silva and Issun to argue. "They're still going at it... I don't wanna be there for it. Hope they stop soon." She sighed.

Ammy rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly, then turned to face Susano, who let out a questionable growl. Abigail tilted her head.

"You... you foul beast! How did you get in here?-!" he huffed.

"Foul beast...?" Abigail frowned.

The 'foul beast', the bear, was in fact fast asleep. Ammy and Abigail gave Susano a look, but he took no notice.

"You have some nerve sneaking into my private training ground!" Susano declared. "Now you shall get a taste of my new secret technique!"

The bear snored in reply. Abigail facepalmed. "...That's a bear... A sleeping one, at that..." she attempted to explain half-heartedly, as she knew Susano would not take any notice, yet again.

"Enough talk!" Susano snapped, predictably ignoring her. "My blade thirsts for battle!" He slipped into some awkward-looking kind of battle stance that, like the Exploding Implosion's stance, would probably yield no results. "Susano-style SUSANO!-!-!"

"He named a move after himself?-!" Abigail exclaimed. "It's already 'Susano-style', just leave it at that!"

He proceeded to 'hit' the torches that lit the room one by one, exclaiming a different syllable of his name each time and finishing with shouting his entire name. When Ammy had Powerslashed all four of the torches, the room had been rendered completely dark. Abigail shivered softly at the intense darkness and turned her hand into a torch.

"Now for Susano-style..." Susano dropped into a familiar awkward-looking battle stance. "Exploding Implosion!-!-!" He charged the bear and slashed at it, which prompted Ammy to Powerslash the bear. Though this was obviously a bad idea, Susano took no notice; Abigail was totally down with him getting eaten, and Ammy seemed to be willing to let him take the consequences if there were any.

Most unfortunately, there weren't any; the bear simply jolted awake for a brief moment, rubbed its eyes, and fell backwards off the ball, fast asleep once more. Susano simply cackled at this. "Aha ha ha ha ha ha! That'll teach you, foolish beast! You're no match for my new secret technique!"

Abigail was completely silent. Ammy took a few steps forward until she was standing next to Susano, then peered into his face, almost as if checking if he were quite sane. Susano remained motionless until he glanced off to the side, saw Ammy, then realized he was not alone and jolted. He proceeded to look nervous for a moment. Then, he put his sword away, folded his arms, and cleared his throat.

"Um... uh..." he stuttered for a moment, then managed to continue, "Rest in peace, foul beast." He nodded in what he clearly thought was a calm and sageful manner. "Susano condemns the offense, not the offender. Anyway, there are other monsters I must defeat!"

With this last lie- I mean, statement, Susano ran off once more, cackling madly like always, leaving Ammy and Abigail alone in the dark room. Abigail put a hand to her face in a 'no. just... no.' manner, while Ammy simply tilted her head, as if continuing to question the "great warrior"'s mind. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement that Susano was completely insane. That, or inept. Or maybe both.

"I dunno what that guy's problem is," Abigail grumbled, as she went around re-lighting the torches with her torch-hand, turning it back into a hand when she had finished. She glanced around the room- the only sound was the echo of the bear's ferocious snores for several moments- and she suddenly brightened as if she had an idea. "Hey, Ammy... look at this thing." Abigail walked toward the strange crystal that the bear had previously been standing atop, and Ammy approached it as well.

"It looks like... it's filled with leaves..." Abigail trailed off, frowning. "Maybe this has something to do with the Sapling. D'you know what it's for, Ammy?"

As it turned out, Ammy did seem to have an idea, because she began to roll it out of the room. Abigail, deciding to trust Ammy, helped her with this task, as it would likely be very difficult for one without hands to roll a ball through the cave.

They returned to the Sapling to find Silva and Issun still arguing. Abigail stood a couple of feet away and watched their argument with a look of disbelief in her eyes.

"Midget!"

"White-haired granny!"

"Bug!"

"I told you not to call me that, you... you... you sad excuse for a fairy!"

"OH HELL NO," Silva yelled, pulling out one of her swords with a mad glint in her eye.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU," Abigail thundered suddenly, with a positively vicious look on her face, "THAT I DIDN'T WANT ANY MORE **_ARGUING!_**"

Issun hopped away a few feet in terror while Silva actually shrank back.

"...Yes, well, Ammy knows what to do now, so let's wait for her, okay?" Abigail continued in a much calmer voice.

Ammy, who had taken a few steps away from Abigail, nodded cautiously and proceeded to push the crystal into a small puddle that was in front of the sapling. The water rose like a fountain, holding the crystal up.

"...wow, someone had a lot of time on their hands to think this up." Issun commented after a few moments' hesitation. "So this was that sphere in that wall painting! I bet this sphere here is magic or something!"

"If this is like the picture, as Issun says..." Silva said slowly, still afraid of Abigail's wrath and not wanting to make her angry again. "Then there should be a sun like the one Ammy drew in the picture..."

Ammy took her cue and drew a sun in the sky.

The sun shone on the crystal, which in turn shone the light onto the small plant in front of it. The small plant immediately grew into a replica of the Konohana tree, though this one was much smaller, and withered.

"Hey, is this a Guardian Sapling?" Issun commented.

Silva opened her mouth, probably to give him a sarcastic reply, but remembering Abigail's outburst, quickly shut it.

"It's all withered like the others..." Issun continued.

Suddenly, the sky went dark, and a few beams of starlight shone down on the four.

"Huh?" Silva looked up at the sky, confused.

"What the? Who turned out the lights? Oh…it's another constellation!" Issun exclaimed.

"Ooooh..." Abigail beamed up at the sky. "It's so pretty..."

Ammy painted two dots, completing the constellation, and the scenery changed to a golden landscape.

"Wha-?" Silva looked around with curiosity. Abigail seemed to think the new scenery was not particularly alarming, but also very pretty, because she beamed around at it, too.

What looked like a large monkey holding an instrument of some sort came down from the sky, spinning as it landed softly.

"Ah... Amaterasu... Origin of all that is good and mother to us all..." It began. "Silva, guardian of the Wood Nymphs... and Celeste, messenger of the golden kingdom of Halley... you have my gratitude for releasing my body from its slumber. Please accept my humble thanks in return for your great kindness. I am Sakigami, one of the triumvirate of flora gods known as the Hanagami. My brethren and I have been entrusted with the brush techniques known collectively as greensprout. I now grant my humble power to you. Use it wisely." Sakigami transformed into a ball of light, and it flew into Ammy, giving her a new brush technique.

"Hey, that was Sakigami, one of the gods of flora!" Issun stated. "Apparently, the Bloom brush technique can make flowers blossom simply by drawing a circle on a withered tree. Maybe it'll make the withered Guardian Sapling blossom, too!"

"Only one way to find out." Silva said, watching as Ammy drew a circle around the tree with her tail. It immediately burst into pink petals, and the area around it began to revive.

They stepped outside to see the extent of the rejuvenation.

"Wow!" Issun exclaimed. "Look at how everything grew back so quick! Sakuya wasn't kidding about the power of the guardian saplings! So this is what Hana Valley's supposed to look like…"

Abigail squealed with excitement. "It's so pretty~!"

"Almost makes me want to live here..." Silva commented softly, looking around at the valley with a serene expression.

"Seems Sakuya's Guardian Sapling has lifted the evil curse. I'm not sure how weak the gods have become recently…but it must've taken some seriously strong power to suppress this magnificent guardian sapling. Even if you are Shiranui reborn…we might be up against more than we bargained for!" Issun said. "Hey, Ammy, Silva, Abigail…what about that withered Guardian Sapling outside? I bet you three could revive it like you did this one! And by bringing that guardian sapling back to life, we might be able to lift the curse there, too! What are we waiting for? Leap before you think, right?"

"Wasn't it don't leap before you think...?" Abigail wondered.

"I thought it was 'think before you leap'…" Silva trailed.

"Not for us!" Silva could vividly imagine Issun giving her a giant, carefree grin right then.

Silva rolled her eyes and then ran down the path, only to crash into a green imp that had materialized in front of her. She swore loudly as it threw her off itself and she went sailing into the barrier. Abigail squealed, this time in fear, and kept on the edge of the battle as she did her best to avoid the action.

Ammy growled and attacked the imps, keeping an eye on the yellow one that was running around underground. It spotted her, however, and it would have hit her if Silva had not attacked it from behind with a loud cry of "YAAH!" She swung her sword down on its head, and it fell down, dead.

Ammy barked as Silva unintentionally struck a pose. "Well, it seems we're even now." She said happily. Ammy barked again, pawing Silva's clothes. "Hm?" She looked down. Her white shirt was spattered with blood, as was her grey skirt. "Weird... I didn't know demons had blood..." She sighed. "I'll wash it later. Or," She mused. "I'll get a kimono instead. Better to blend in with." She shrugged.  
>"I wanna kimono..." Abigail mumbled to herself. "I heard they're really pretty, too..."<p>

Unbeknownst to Silva, however, Issun had started chuckling pervertedly at the mention of her washing her clothes. If she had known, she would have squashed him into oblivion.

After checking to make sure Abigail was alright and Silva had no major wounds, Ammy continued down the path.

Issun huffed in frustration when he saw that the possessed trees were still evil and throwing fruits at them. "That creepy old tree just won't give up. I've got an idea, Ammy! Maybe you could hit its fruit right back at it! While it's stunned, you could use Bloom to rid it of evil."

"...It's worth a shot," Silva concluded.

Ammy did as Issun suggested, and the tree turned into a beautiful cherry tree.

"Wow, you actually had a good idea, for once." Silva murmured.

"Peaches!" Abigail exclaimed suddenly, pointing at the fruit that had fallen from the tree. She ran over and picked up one of the peaches, lightly wiping it off before eagerly chomping into it.

"...wait, what?" Silva walked over and picked another fruit up, this one an orange. "Whaddaya know..."

Ammy barked impatiently.

"Coming, coming." Silva jogged down to where Ammy was on the path, peeling the orange as she did so. Abigail followed suit with a mouthful of peach.

Issun, once again, stopped them when they had gone a ways down. "Woah, guys! Hold on!"

"What now?" Silva grumbled, tired of being interrupted.

Issun pretended not to hear her. "Hana Valley looks so much better now, but... what about this patch of grass?"

The grass, if you could call it that, was completely dead, small streams of purple smoke emanating from it. To top it off, there was a cow skull sitting in the middle of it.

"That is a really weird patch of grass." Silva commented, eyeing the skull warily.

"What's with the skull...?" Abigail asked blankly, through another mouthful of peach.

"I really don't know..." Silva replied, wiping a trickle of orange juice from the corner of her mouth.

While the two girls had been talking, Issun had explained the rest to Ammy and Ammy had used Rejuvenation on the grass patch, finding a scroll in the process. She then turned around and gave them a look that said "Let's get going, shall we?"

(Scene Transition says Mystic is lazy.)

"Ow!" Silva yelped, getting hit by yet another flaming fruit and trying desperately to avoid the others. "AMMY! A LITTLE HELP OVER HERE!" She yelled, sliding along the ground in an attempt to dodge a fruit.

Issun was laughing hysterically while Ammy decided to take pity on the fairy and bloomed all the evil trees that were currently attacking her.

"Mystic hates me," Silva muttered, rubbing her arm and glaring up at the sky.

"YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BREAK THE FOURTH WALL." Mikey yelled down from her spot in the clouds.

"I can do whatever the hell I want!" Silva yelled back.

"Can we keep the fourth wall breaking to a minimum, please?" Mystic called from backstage.

Silva grumbled something inaudible, but acted like nothing had happened.

Mystic Obliviated all the characters for good measure.

Abigail was now staring at a conspicuous glowing green spot that stood on a ledge. "...hey guys... uh... there's somethin' over there..."  
>Silva looked up at the ledge, the flew up to it. "...it's a glowing green spot. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad..." She mused, staring down at the column of light emanating from a random spot in the ground. "Ammy, get up here! We need your digging skills!"<p>

Ammy wall jumped and dug at the glowing green spot. A clover came up from the ground and randomly hovered in the air.

"...is it just me or this clover defying the law of gravity?" Silva asked, waving her hand underneath the clover to make sure there was nothing holding it up.

Abigail stared suspiciously at the clover. _...Isn't that the logo of the studio that helped make Okami...?_

"...well, I suppose there's nothing else to do but bloom it." Silva said after several seconds.

Ammy obliged and drew a circle around the clover, earning herself 5 praise.

"I suppose we should move on now." Silva declared, jumping from the ledge to the ground.

(Scene Transition: Overused. OVERUSED.)

After finding more clovers, blooming all the trees in Hana Valley, evil or not, and getting a Sun Fragment, the group emerged from Hana Valley back into Shinshu field, which was still cursed.

"Oh gods that was repetitive." Silva mumbled.

"That's one more brush technique in the bag!" Issun announced suddenly.

"I like this technique..." Abigail mused, smiling.

"Can we go bloom the Shinshu field Sapling now?" Silva asked impatiently.

Ammy barked and ran off toward the tree.

"Woah, Ammy! Slow down! Heel! Heel!" Issun yelled desperately, holding on to Ammy's fur for dear life.

"Hey!" Silva yelled, grabbing Abigail's sleeve and running after the white wolf.

"What is with this group and running off randomly?" Abigail whined as she attempted to keep up with Silva, and not doing so well due to her charming clumsiness.

* * *

><p><strong>Mystic: Long chapter is long. o_o 10 pages, according to Mikey. And we introduce the Scene Transition that is probably going to be used a lot more in later chapters. The ones that are repetitive, most likely. ...we also learn that you should not make Abigail angry.<br>Silva: ._.  
>Abigail: :P<br>Mystic: ...and you don't insult Silva's fairy heritage, either.  
>Issun: x_x<br>Ammy: *facepaw*  
>Mikey: Let's just hope they get along. Actually, in most stories characters get along better and understand each other more as the story progresses. So hopefully that happens here. :T<br>Mystic: This is Silva and Issun we're talking about. I really doubt that's going to happen. xD  
>Mikey: We'll just have to count on Abigail to be the happy medium, then. Anyway, review plz, tell us how it was~<br>Silva: Reviewers get cake and/or cookies!**


	8. Issun's Very Very Very Odd Day

**Mikey: Ohai there. New chapter, here for your enjoyment. owo Meant to post last week, but I forgot. XD; Sorry.  
>Mystic: CHAPTAH SEVEN BICHES.<br>Mikey: Ammy start!  
>Ammy: *barkbark*<strong>

* * *

><p>In running to the Guardian Sapling, Ammy had narrowly avoided falling into the river and had somehow thrown Issun into the tree as she skidded to a stop, amidst Silva's uproarious laughter.<br>**  
><strong>"Oh gods, that was priceless..." She said, trying to regain her breath.

Meanwhile, Issun had peeled himself off the bark and was now facing Ammy, hopping up and down in rage, his aura red. "Hey! Be more careful next time, furball! What would have happened if I had gone into the river instead, huh?!"

"You would be gone and the world would have a grand party to celebrate." Silva muttered under her breath.

Abigail giggled weakly, but peered at Issun to see if he was okay. It was hard to tell since he was so small, so she decided to ask. "Y'okay, Issun?"

"Nothing but a few scrapes." Issun replied.

Abigail nodded. "Mkay... so..." She studied the Guardian Sapling. "We've gotta Bloom this, right? Ammy?"

Ammy drew a circle around the tree.

In the next several moments, what occurred was nothing short of miraculous: the tree burst into sakura blossoms, and the ground around it began to sprout endless flowers. The wave of flowers surged past the party and spread across the entire field with its radiant green glow, turning brown into viridian, death into life. Flowers sprouted all across the field as the river's blue sheen was restored, and as if rejoicing, it flowed almost excitedly through its channel. To put it shortly, the once barren field had been restored to its former glory, and it couldn't have looked any better than it did now.

Silva looked on, deciding that Divine Interventions were much better in person, though she wished she could have listened to the music as well.

"Wow..." Abigail breathed as she scanned the newly-revived landscape in awe. "That was amazing..."

Ammy wagged her tail happily.

"Wow! That nasty cursed zone is completely gone! The plants and animals are back! And just feel that fresh breeze! Now that's what I call a Great Divine Intervention! If you three keep on dispelling the evil curse like this, I bet the gods of nature will lend you their powers!" Issun exclaimed.

Abigail cheered lightly and threw her hands in the air happily. She then looked as though a thought had occurred to her and poked Silva.

Silva blinked and looked over at Abigail. "Hm? What?"

"The river's clean," Abigail pointed out. "Is there anywhere you can wash your clothes?"

Silva looked at the river. "...no, there isn't. It's too open- anyone can see me from anywhere in the field." She was looking pointedly at Issun as she said this.

"Hey!"

Abigail gave a snort that she quickly turned into a cough. "...Well, we should probably find someplace as soon as possible," she stated. "You might scare someone with that stuff on your clothes."

Silva looked down at herself. "...yeah, you're probably right." She agreed.

Ammy barked suddenly to get their attention, and gestured with her muzzle towards Kamiki.

The Konohana tree suddenly grew larger and taller, and leaves were starting to grow on it. It looked much healthier, that much was obvious.

"Hey, that's…that's Sakuya's tree, isn't it?" Issun asked. "Maybe she perked up 'cause you revived a Guardian Sapling? Well, we can stop by and see her later. I mean, we're kinda on a roll here. How about we take a look around Shinshu Field first? You've been gone 100 years, right?"

"Technically we've never been here before..." Silva trailed quietly.

"Well then, a good run around the place will do you good!" Issun exclaimed.

"I do wanna look around..." Abigail looked hopeful.

"Sure, why not." Silva said, shrugging. "I'd like to get a closer look at the place, myself." She pulled out the map from seemingly nowhere (In reality she stole it from Issun, but they didn't need to know that.) and took another look at the spots Sakuya circled. "Okay, we can either run around aimlessly and get to know the place better, or we can go straight to the circled spots. Which one do you guys want to do?" She asked.

"I wanna look around!" Abigail exclaimed. "Everywhere, not just the saplings."

"Sapling." Silva corrected. "There's only one in Shinshu field. And I think we've pretty much seen all of Hana Valley."

"I think a good run around the place will do you all good." Issun said.

"Run around aimlessly it is!" Silva declared, rolling up the map and putting it... somewhere.

Abigail grinned. "I wonder what we'll run into from just runnin' around?"

As it turned out, they ran into several demons scrolls, rabbits, horses and other animals (which Silva tripped over at one point) that they fed, a mailman named Ida who needed a Traveler's Charm to move again, a demon gate, and other things. All in all, they ran around for a good two hours and collected over a 100 praise.

"Oh gods," Silva panted, flopping down to the ground. "That was exhausting."

Ammy seemed unaffected as she sat down beside Silva and simply yawned. Abigail, on the other hand, looked tired but quite pleased.  
>"That was fun!" she said brightly, optimistic as ever. "What're we gonna do next?"<p>

"I say go to the circled spots." Silva replied. "But give me a minute, I need to rest." She turned over on her back and looked at the Guardian Sapling. "...oh look, a chest."

"Wait, what?" Issun said.

Silva pointed to the base of the Sapling. There was indeed a chest among the roots.

"...how did we miss that?" Issun facepalmed.

"Maybe we were too excited about exploring?" Abigail suggested. "We did take all night..." By this time, night had already passed, and the sun was currently shining brightly.

Silva got up, sighing. "'Kay, let's go to those red circled spots now."

Abigail yawned and got to her feet, rubbing her eyes as she did so. "Okay..." she said, as enthusiastically as she could without shouting. Admittedly, this sounded much less excited and upbeat than it would have.

Ammy yawned again, then got up.

Silva pulled out the map and studied it again. "...'kay, the closest place here is..." She pointed toward the hills without taking her eyes off the map. "Thataway. Let's go." She yawned again.

(Scene Transition is back. Whoop-de-doo.)

"OH COME ON!" Silva yelled, throwing her hands up in the air.

As soon as they had crossed the bridge that led to a small house, a barrier came up, with two green imps and a flying fish.

"I'll take the fish, you take the imps." Silva told Ammy.

Ammy nodded and tackled the nearest imp while Silva flew up to the fish.

She gritted her teeth. "You- will- not- keep- me- from- my- sleep!" She growled, slashing the fish with each word.

Meanwhile, Abigail was dozing in the corner, hardly paying attention to the battle, her eyes drooping sleepily. "...You guys..." she mumbled. "Hey... guys... Silva... behind you..."

Silva just barely managed to hear Abigail, even with her sharp hearing, and she turned around, confused. "Wha-?"

The green imp that had escaped Ammy's notice smacked Silva to the ground with its flute.

Silva let out a cry of pain, wincing when she tried to sit up. "You're going to pay for that!" She yelled, tackling the imp.

Ammy watched the fistfight with confusion, not quite sure what to do.

Issun, meanwhile, was cheering Silva on, clearly enjoying the mini-brawl.

Abigail had slumped over and all but fallen asleep.

Silva emerged from the dust cloud that had formed, panting. She held up a fist in triumph. "Victory!" She exclaimed. There was a brief moment of silence before Silva fell to her knees. "Oh man this is worse than the cursed zone." She mumbled, stubbornly getting to her feet again.

Ammy had walked over to Abigail and was licking her face in an attempt to wake her up. Abigail spazzed out and yelped as she woke up, then blinked wildly before squinting at Ammy. "...Oh, thanks, Ammy," she mumbled, rubbing Ammy's ears in thanks before getting to her feet.

Silva slowly walked to the door. She noticed the sign, and squinted slightly to read it. "Sleeping like a log. Come back at night."

There was a moment of silence.

"..." Abigail blinked sleepily. "...Fudge buckets." She drooped to the ground and slumped against a nearby tree, which Ammy instantly Bloomed for good measure.

"...I hate this guy." Silva muttered, flopping down to the ground again. "I am going to sleep, and there is nothing you can do to change my freaking mind." She rolled over, and, seeing Ammy curled up on the ground, proceeded to use her as a pillow. Abigail tugged the band holding her braid together off, causing her hair to instantly spread out into a wavy mane of chocolate brown hair that fell halfway down her back. She tugged the pins out of her bangs, causing them to droop in front of her eyes, and then fell sideways and was instantly asleep, using a tree root as a pillow.

(Timeskip has replaced Scene Transition for the time being! :D)

Silva slowly opened her eyes, blinking and wondering why it was so dark. Then she realized it was partly because it was nighttime, and partly because half of her face was buried in Ammy's fur (Which was very comfortable, she might add.) She yawned and sat upright, stretching her arms. She felt something in her shirt shift, and she looked down, frowning. She could just make out a soft, green glow.

...wait.

...soft green glow?

'ISSUN, YOU PERVERT!" She screamed, grabbing him from inside her shirt and throwing him toward the house. Ammy jolted upright, bracing for an attack, when she realized it was only Silva, who was now trying to kill Issun, who in turn was hopping around frantically and yelling at Ammy to "Help me, I'm too young and handsome to die!".

Silva nearly succeeded in squashing Issun, but he turned around and went the other way- only to come face to face with a bear.

...A large bear.

...With big eyes.

"WHAT THE-?!"

The bear opened its mouth and ate Issun.

Actually, it more like held Issun in its mouth and gushed him around with its saliva. It seemed to almost be enjoying itself. After a short period of time, it spat Issun back out. Then it stared at him. Much like how Buckbeak stared down werewolf Lupin in Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4.

Issun then began complaining - loudly - about how he was covered in bear saliva and that was horrible and why the hell did it do that and a handsome guy like him didn't deserve to be-

The bear turned into Abigail.

Who continued to stare.

"...okay that just makes it even worse." Issun stated.

Silva raised an eyebrow at her. "He can't have tasted good."

"No," Abigail said bluntly. "No he did not. But he did a bad thing. And so he was punished. Such is the way of the world." She nodded mysteriously.

Silva had a hard time keeping a straight face and holding in giggles.

"Hold up!" Issun said. "What 'bad thing' did I do?!"

"Be a pervert and sleep in my shirt." Silva stated, glaring daggers at him.

"Yes. That." Abigail nodded.

He had no reply to that.

Ammy barked to get their attention, then motioned towards the sky and then to the house.

"...Well, it's nighttime now," Abigail said brightly, seeming to completely push aside the fact that she had nearly swallowed Issun several moments ago. "Let's see what this house has for us." She hurriedly pulled her hair pins out of her pocket and pinned her bangs up, then quickly tamed her mane of hair with a comb. Within a minute or two her hair had been braided once more.

Silva opened the door - which no longer had the sign on it - and walked inside.

"No, no, no! That can't be right…it shouldn't be doing that…no, no, no! I checked and double-checked my formula! No, no, no!" Tama was talking to himself, bending over some sort of pit in the middle of the room.

"Hey!" Issun piped up. "You there, got a minute?"

Tama turned around. "Hm? Whoa! What's this little wisp doing here?"

"Sure, completely ignore the two girls standing in front of him."

"I am not a wisp!" Issun yelled. "I'm Issun the wandering artist!"

Abigail giggled.

Silva was reminded of his scroll at the beginning of the game for some odd reason.

"Well, well, well. You're a little ball of fire, aren't you?" Tama stood up. "I'm Tama. Tama, the Flaming Pyrotechnist! That's what they call me!" And then he sat down again. "Listen up, you four."

"Sure, now he acknowledges us."

"I'm just about to set off a hum-dinger of a doozy. Take a look at the formula I posted on the wall there. My whole career as a Pyrotechnist has led to that formula, friends."

It was a picture of a circle with a line through it.

"That's kinda sad." Silva commented.

"Don't judge a book by its cover," Abigail replied cheerily. "I mean, I know a pyrokinetic, and maybe she's not the smartest person I know, but she can pack a punch!"

"You're talking about Ginger, aren't you?" Silva only knew the girl because her cousin Ivy kept talking about her.

"Yup." Abigail grinned. "You two've met?"

"Nah, Ivy just keeps ranting about her to me." Silva replied.

"Ohh." Abigail nodded in understanding.

Tama continued talking. "It's for a little firework I've dubbed the Midnight Wonder Boy!"

Issun suddenly snorted. Abigail blinked and tilted her head at him in confusion. "What's so funny...?" she mumbled.

"Issun! Get your head out of the gutter!" Silva yelled. Ammy proceeded to eat him, causing Abigail to giggle again. So by the time Tama was finished talking, Issun was covered in spit and lying on the ground, unmoving and yet still complaining.

"There's only one problem…even though I know the formula is sound, it's not working right yet. I know! Listen, pup, girls. You've got good eyes. Fiery eyes…smoldering eyes…maybe your red-hot glares are just what I need to set this off!" Tama declared.

"...interesting logic you have there." Silva said.

Abigail looked like she had just received an ego stroking. "Of course they are!" she proclaimed.

Silva rolled her eyes.

"Feast your eyes on the greatest display the world has ever seen!" Tama jumped up again. "Hold onto your hats, kids! Here I go! The brightest constellation in the sky-the Midnight Wonder Boy!" Then he made some weird noises, threw explosives into a bowl, and Ammy drew the formula over the bowl, creating a giant cherry bomb.

Everyone ran outside, watching fireworks light up the night. Ammy sat on her hind legs and pawed at the air for some strange reason. Abigail especially was excited by the fireworks, though this was to be expected.

The starlight chose at that moment to shine down on them, Ammy obligingly filling in the dots.

A boar standing on a giant cherry bomb rolled toward them, with the little boar piglet things (Boarlets?) close behind, trying to light the fuse. One actually succeeded, though the head boar managed to put it out. The the boars turned to face them. "Ah…Amaterasu. Origin of all that is good and mother to us all…Silva, guardian of the Wood Nymphs... and Celeste, messenger of the golden kingdom of Halley…too often, it is easy to forget what we cannot see. Hidden away, I had lost track of you. But now my soul is at ease. I, Bakugami, god of explosive force, lend my power to your cause. Use the cherry bomb to lay waste to foes and obstacles alike!" Then Bakugami rolled away, the boarlets followed, an explosion was heard, and the power of Cherry Bomb simply rolled into Ammy.

Silva laughed.

"Hey, did another brush technique just come back to you?" Issun asked Ammy. "That was Bakugami, god of explosions. His technique is called cherry bomb. Tama's enthusiasm must've awakened the god's power in you! Well, what're ya waitin' for? Let's give that cherry bomb a try! How about that cracked wall over there? Why don't you try a cherry bomb on it? Just be careful…" He gulped.

"Hey..." Abigail trailed. "The crack looks like those spacial rift thingies Fleep can make stuff appear out of." She tilted her head at the crack.

"Who's Fleep?" Issun asked.

"A fairy thingy," Abigail replied serenely.

"...that tells me nothing at all."

"Sorry, I just can't think of a way to explain it that wouldn't confuse you." Abigail frowned.

Silva decided to intervene before things got really confusing. "Basically he's a guy who can find things not visible to the naked eye. But enough about that- Ammy what are you doing."

Ammy had drawn a cherry bomb, but it had somehow rolled over to Silva, and she scooted away before it exploded.

Ammy gave Silva an apologetic look and exploded the crack in the wall.

"Whoa, look at that hole! It blasted the cracked wall to smithereens! That cherry bomb is one destructive technique! I mean, just think of what it could do to monsters! It'll be tricky handling something that powerful! But I bet we'll be using it all the time once we master it!" Issun declared.

"I hope so, that thing is awesome!" Abigail grinned widely.

Silva, meanwhile, had gone inside the cave, and was now walking out with a rat statue in her hand. She pulled out the map again and looked it over briefly. "The next closest thing is... over there." She pointed across the bridge.

Abigail nodded in understanding. "Well, let's go then," she proclaimed rather grandly, pointing across the bridge. "ONWARD TO BRIDGES!"

Silva nodded, then suddenly got a strange glint in her eye. "Hey, Ammy." She said, looking over at the wolf, who had stopped mid-run and was looking back at Silva. "Wanna race?"

Ammy gave a wolfish grin in reply.

"Oh, this is going to be good." Issun said. "Ready... set... GO!"

Silva opened her wings with a snap and went as fast as she could across the bridge. Ammy, likewise, was going so fast one could say her feet weren't touching the ground. They were neck-and-neck until Silva accidentally flew through a demon gate, somehow managed to keep going past the barrier, and tumbled to the ground. She untangled herself and blinked. "...what just happened?" She said, though there was no-one to answer her question- Ammy was in the Demon Gate and Abigail was far behind.

Abigail managed to catch up after a minute or two, but she was stumbling and tripping like the charming klutz she was from running at that speed. "...Don't you... ever... wait...?" she wheezed, falling to her knees and panting.

Silva thought for a moment. "...sometimes." She answered brightly.

"...try more often...?" Abigail whined softly, clutching a stitch in her side.

Silva shrugged noncommittally.

Ammy emerged from the demon gate.

"How did you even escape that?!" Issun demanded.

"I honestly do not know." Silva replied.

"My sides hurt..." Abigail complained. "And my head... and my back... the tree root wasn't very comfy..."

Silva proceeded to walk over to Abigail and give her a sort-of back massage.

Meanwhile Issun was stating the obvious. "Huh?" Issun stared at the building like it just appeared out of thin air. "What a pretentious sign! Ammy, Silva, Abigail, this here's a dojo! This is where people come to learn sword fighting and martial arts."

"No, really? I didn't notice, I was too busy trying to drown out the sound of your voice." Silva rolled her eyes.

"DOJO?!" Abigail exclaimed loudly, leaping up at once. "Where, where- OH!" She ran toward it and stood in front of the large sign. "Wooow... so... I..." She turned to the rest of the party and declared, "I could learn how to fight here! ...or at the very least how to defend myself! ...right, guys?"

Silva nodded. "That's not a bad idea..."

Ammy barked in approval.

"Yes!" Abigail fistpumped.

"Shall we go inside?" Silva asked.

Abigail nodded eagerly and tried to head in the dojo without running.

Ammy talked to the Onigiri Sensei while Silva looked at the list of moves he taught. "Fleetfoot, Four Winds, Spirit Storm, Golden Fury..."  
>Abigail, meanwhile, gulped and approached the Onigiri Sensei. "...I... was... l mean... ...can you teach me some self defense?" She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.<p>

The sensei looked her up and down. "Hmm... are you sure? I won't go easy on you."

Abigail nodded eagerly again. "Sure I'm sure."

The sensei seemed to contemplate it for a moment, and then he nodded. "Very well. When would you like to start?"

"Right now, if that's okay..." Abigail answered, fidgeting slightly.

The sensei nodded. "Follow me." And he walked into the training room behind him. Abigail obliged at once, gulping slightly again and looking both tense and excited.

Silva waved, while Issun looked slightly worried. "You think she'll be okay?"

"She'll be fine." Silva answered. "She's determined to do this. Anyway, let's go to the last marked spot. She might be in there a while and it'll be faster if we go now."

(Timeskip says lazy authors are lazy.)

Abigail walked outside and stretched slightly; her hair had come out of its braid during training and she currently couldn't be bothered to put it back. She stared up at the sky and found that it was nighttime, meaning she had been training for quite a while. She vaguely wondered where the others were and had just begun to walk forward when she was surrounded by a barrier. She hadn't been watching where she was going- and had run straight into a demon scroll as a result.

Abigail instantly began to panic slightly as a pair of green imps appeared- and so did a third, with some strange arrow stuck in its back. "I am Toya of Short Temper." It announced. "Any last words, pathetic human?"

Oh god oh god oh god I'm gonna die- Abigail took a breath. She couldn't panic here... No one was around to watch her back. This was all her... "...Your _mom_!" she shouted, totally ignoring the fact that this was an awful, awful, overused joke.

Toya of Short Temper was shocked into a short, confused silence. Abigail didn't give him a moment to recover from the childish, ridiculous battle cry/insult before lunging at him and giving him a faceful of fist. She took the brief moment while he was again stunned to turn to one of the green imps and snatch its wrist before it could whack her in the head, then flip it onto the ground. Again she turned and snatched the other green imp's wrist, but instead of flipping it, threw it into Toya of Short Temper. While they were distracted, she proceeded to beat the living snot out of the green imp as quickly as possible, then steal its flute and bash its face in with it. With that imp defeated, Abigail rushed to where the other two imps were recovering and twirled in an attack highly reminiscent of the Spin Attack to hit the second green imp and Toya of Short Temper. Again she began to kill the green imp as quickly as she could before moving on to Toya of Short Temper. There was no mercy for him; she pounded his face (and for that matter, the rest of his body) as painfully as she could make it, until finally he seemed to be on his last legs.

"Any last words, Toya of Short Temper?!" Abigail demanded, standing over him, tossing her mane of hair and looking quite fiery-spirited, with the light of battle glowing in her eyes.

Toya of Short Temper was almost beyond the point of speech. For several moments there was quiet... and finally it seemed as if he were about to speak-

-when suddenly the flute bashed into him again, and he was no more, defeated by the brunette shapeshifter who wielded one of his compatriots' flutes.

"...Oops! Too late~" Abigail said brightly, stepping aside. "Sorry, but you took too long!"

The barrier dissipated into nothingness, revealing the deep indigo sky once more. Abigail let out a joyous victory shout and jumped into the air, pumping a fist as she did so. She'd done it, she'd defeated three imps all by herself! That alone was cause enough for celebration.

(Scene Transition is back!)

"What do you think the reward is?" Issun mused.

"I don't know, but it probably won't be very expensive." Silva replied, a thoughtful look on her face. "'Cause priests more often than not don't have a lot of money or have very expensive stuff- Ammy, what's wrong?"

Ammy was looking intently toward the dojo, tense as if there were demons around.

Issun spoke up. "Hey... do you hear that?"

"It sounds like... shouting..."

There was a moment of silence.

"...ABIGAIL!"

"Oh, hey, what's up?" Suddenly Abigail popped up behind them.

Silva yelped and whirled around while Ammy nearly tackled Abigail, thinking she was a demon.

"What happened?!" Issun asked. "We heard shouting and- Is... is that blood?!"

Silva grabbed Abigail and began looking her over, trying to find a serious injury of some sort that would account for the blood.

"Hey, hey, whoa, I'm fine!" Abigail flailed her hands. "I ran into a demon scroll by accident, but I'm completely okay. I swear."

They all stared at her.

"..."

"...you ran into a demon scroll and you're fine?"

"Yeah, of course! See, look." Abigail pulled out the flute weapon thing she had taken from the green imp and showed it to them, then examined it herself with a chuckle. "It's so funny, there was this one imp there who could talk, he called himself Toya of Short Temper or something or other. Kinda funny, right? I mean, that's a weird name!"

"Toya of Short Temper?" Silva repeated, then looked back at Issun. "Isn't that one of the names on the scroll?"

"I thought it was 'Toyo'..."

"The guy himself said Toya... what does the scroll say?"

"I can't read the guy's handwriting..."

"Screw it, let's just call him Toya."

"Wait wait hold it." Abigail held up her hands. "What scroll?"

"We met a priest who gave us a list of demon outlaws to kill." Issun explained.

"And Toya of Short Temper was one of the names on the list. You can cross it out now, by the way." Silva said the last part to Issun.

After a short pause, a look dawned on Abigail's face that can only be described as a look of purest awesome. "...Wait... so I... I killed a demon outlaw?!"

"Pretty much."

Abigail then proceeded to throw even more of a parade than she had been before. Complete with dancing and cheering and jumping and fistpumping.

Issun was giving her a weird look, Silva was giggling, and Ammy had a wolfish grin on her face.

"...can we keep going now?" Issun asked after a minute or two.

Abigail stopped her parading and stuck her tongue out at Issun. "Killjoy. But okay."

"We're going back to Kamiki, right?" Silva asked.

Abigail shrugged. "Are we?"

"We still have to head to the ferry dock." Issun replied.

"Let's go, then. I don't want to drag this out any longer than I have to." Silva sighed.

(Scene Transition is on strike, so Timeskip is here instead.)

"Well that was a waste of time." Silva muttered, walking past the merchant sitting at the entrance of Kamiki Village.

"We got a good walk," Abigail pointed out, as she did her best to rebraid her hair and walk at the same time. "That wasn't too bad. At least the sun's up now."

Silva muttered something about wanting more cherry cakes.

"We can stay here until night if ya want." Abigail grinned. "I won't object." Her stomach was growling at the very thought of the cherry cakes.

"We gotta see Sakuya, remember?" Issun cut in. "We can get the cherry cakes afterward."

"Hey, what's going on?" Silva suddenly asked as they crossed the bridge. "Everyone's running around..."

"That looks fun!"

Silva walked up to the pot-headed man they saw four chapters ago. His name was Komuso, if she remembered correctly.

Komuso was doing a happy dance, the number 15 above his head in bold red. "Ah ha ha! What a joy to see life returning to the land! Just 15 more to go…we will be blessed with a miracle when all the trees are in bloom!"

_Oh, yeah_. Silva thought. _We have to bloom 15 trees, don't we?_ She sighed.

"So we have to bloom 15 trees." Issun stated. "Sounds easy enough."

"Until you run around trying to find that one elusive tree that refuses to be bloomed." Silva muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Wow, imagine what Kamiki will look like when the trees have all bloomed..." Abigail pondered. "No time to waste, I guess."

"Why don't we split up?" Silva suggested. "Ammy with Abigail and Issun with me. I mean, since Issun can use the Celestial Brush too (I think), if we split up it'll be faster."

"Whoaaaa, hold up." Abigail frowned and put her hands on her hips. "Sorry Silva, but I don't trust you with Issun."

"...do you really think I'd try anything with him?" Silva raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Abigail replied bluntly. "Like arguing. And you might squish him, and I'm pretty sure we need him alive."

Silva was silent for a moment. "...good point."

Was it just her or did Issun seem disappointed?

Apparently it was not just her, because Abigail pushed her lips into a pout. "Stop it with that look, I mighta just saved your dignity," she huffed at Issun.

"What look?" Issun immediately acted like he hadn't been doing anything.

Silva flicked him in reply.

Abigail managed to catch him and put him on her shoulder. "Now come on, let's go." She frowned and looked from Silva to Ammy, then declared, "THIS IS NOW A RACE!" and ran off to find the first unbloomed tree.

Silva blinked. Then she looked at Ammy.

Ammy looked up at her.

"...What are we waiting for?!" Silva said. "We can't possibly lose to those two!"

Ammy barked and ran off while Silva flew high in the air to see where all the trees were.

(Scene Transition is back from strike.)

"Ammy! The whole path to Konohana and the Sacred Deck is full of trees!" Silva called down. Ammy barked and ran along, blooming trees as she went.

(Scene Transition can tell he's going to be used a LOT.)

"So can you even do Bloom?" Abigail wondered to Issun as she stood in front of an unbloomed tree.

"Sure I can!" Issun replied smugly. Granted, it took him one or two tries to get it to work, but he did it.

"Cool!" Abigail exclaimed as the tree burst into bloom. "Now come on, we've got a race to win!" And with this, she ran off once more.

(Scene Transition made you a cookie, but he eated it.)

"Ammy! One nearby Susano's house!" Silva called, scanning Kamiki for any trees they might have missed.

"Really? Gee, thanks!" Abigail called up as she ran up to the tree near Susano's house, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Issun Bloomed it quickly, the two of them cackling as they ran off to find more trees.

Silva had a rage face as she watched them run away. She looked down at Ammy, who shrugged. Somehow.

(Scene Transition is running out of things to say.)

"Last tree, I think..." Abigail panted as she ran up to the final unbloomed tree. "We got 7... if this is the last tree, then the others got 7, too... so if we Bloom this one, we win...!"

Ammy, who had run up silently behind them, raised her tail and made a circle around the tree- at the same time that Issun raised his sword/brush and circled the tree. The tree had been bloomed, but it was impossible to tell who had done it.

"...Huh?!" Abigail exclaimed. "But- you guys- but we- but the tree-" Abigail's mouth was agape, and she was sputtering as she pointed from Ammy, to herself, to the tree in random order.

"...okay, since we have no idea who circled it first, let's just call it a tie." Silva stated.

Abigail huffed and folded her arms. "Lame," she grumbled. A moment later she tilted her head in thought. "Well, at least we tied with a goddess and a fairy, both of whom are vastly more powerful than us," she mused. "That's a good thing."

"And your point is?" Silva asked her.

"My point is that's an accomplishment," Abigail said cheerfully.

Silva rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go see Mr. Orange now. I met him while I was flying around and he said something about dancing when the trees are bloomed."

"ONWARD TO DANCING!" Abigail declared, and ran off in the wrong direction entirely.

"...that is just so much fail." Silva facepalmed. She followed Abigail up the path to the Konohana Tree, grabbed the back of her shirt and dragged her to the Sacred Deck, Ammy trailing behind with an amused expression while Issun snickered (He had bounced from Abigail to Ammy's head a few minutes earlier). Abigail simply had a half sheepish, half mutinous look on her face.

Silva dropped Abigail at the top of the steps and watched Mr. Orange.

"At last…" Mr. Orange said. "At last, the answer to all my prayers! All the village's trees have sprung back to life! It is time to harness the power that dwells within the good earth. Yes! It is time for the Konahana Shuffle!"

"Why 'shuffle'...?" Abigail wondered to herself.

"Because everyday he's shuffling." Silva replied before being smitten by Mystic.

"THAT WAS TERRIBLE."

"I shall summon back the spirit of the divine tree Konahana!" Mr. Orange completely ignored the now-blackened fairy (thanks to the fourth wall, which is now being repaired), pulling out a jug of sake from seemingly nowhere. "But first, I must break my vow of temperance. I shall gingerly sip the sake, and soon we shall see blossoms!"

He then proceeded to guzzle the sake like there was no tomorrow, though most of it spilled onto his face and beard.

"...That's gingerly?" Abigail gawked.

Silva snorted, suddenly completely fine again. (And no one noticed, again thanks to the fourth wall.) "If that's gingerly, then I'd hate to see what drinking heavily is."

Mr. Orange threw the jug over his shoulder, and the orange on his head grew to an enormous size. "Oh, yes. Yes! Yes!"

Abigail gaped disbelievingly at it.

"Hey gramps, you okay? You got a real weird look in your eyes!" Issun said.

Mr. Orange turned to us. "Snowball! Children!"

"...okay, technically, I'm older than even him." Silva muttered.

"What you're about to see is the stuff of legends!" Mr. Orange continued. Ammy turned away so she wouldn't have to smell his bad breath. Abigail gagged at the smell. Silva didn't blame them; she leaned as far away as possible and covered her nose and mouth, her heightened senses only making it worse.

"Behold, the secret of secrets! I give you…the Konahana Shuffle!" Mr. Orange started dancing, while Silva played the Konohana Shuffle music in her head, and each time he pointed at a section of the tree it burst into blossoms. But at one point the tree didn't bloom, which Ammy decided to fix by using Bloom on it. After doing that several more times, the tree was in full bloom, and Mr. Orange proceeded to pass out on the deck.

"Ah…Great Amaterasu, Silva and Celeste."

"I don't like that name..." Abigail mumbled to herself.

"...since when did we tell Sakuya our names...?" Silva wondered.

"S-Sakuya?" Issun stuttered. "You're alive? And you…um…look very nice!"

"Issun has not tried to make a move on her. IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!" Silva wailed.

"Shut up, Silva." Issun growled.

"Little bug friend, I see you are full of spunk as always." Sakuya (who was now scantily clad) gave a small laugh. "I also owe this elderly gentleman my deepest thanks. What bravery! Mere words cannot express my gratitude."

"...so Sakuya is alive because of a drunk, dancing old man." Silva muttered. "Nope, no thanks to us."

Abigail looked as if she was torn between laughter and facepalming.

"Thanks to you all, I have been restored and re-energized."

Silva noticed that with the way Sakuya was posing (as well as the way she was dressed), it was as if she was trying to get Issun to think dirty thoughts.

Said poncle just gulped.

"Of course, the ones who deserve my thanks and respect the most are none other than the glorious god Amaterasu, Silva and Celeste! Praise be to you all!" She laughed, and Ammy got some praise. "I cannot guarantee that it will mean salvation for all of Nippon, but if you restore the Guardian Saplings spread about the land, you too will benefit from the power that results. I will remain here in Kamiki, praying for your mission's success. How I look forward to gazing upon you again! May the fresh scent of flowers protect you always!" Then she disappeared.

Suddenly, the sky became dark, and starlight shone down on them once again.

"Hey, is this... y'know... a constellation...?" Abigail tilted her head up at the stars.

"I believe it is." Silva replied, staring up at it while Ammy filled in the dots.

The brush god, another monkey, did a backflip and jumped down to them... only to crash into the fourth wall.

"DAMMIT, HASU, I JUST FIXED THAT!" Mystic screamed, starting to become very annoyed with all the characters that were constantly breaking the fourth wall.

"Chill, Mystic," came the lax tone of Mikey. "That was a canonical fourth wall breaking, it doesn't count."

Mystic muttered something unintelligible and left to go "get some air". Mikey shrugged and cued the scene to continue.

Silva and the others pretended like nothing had just happened and kept going.

While Sakigami glared at Hasugami in the background (Hasugami taking no notice), Hasugami began speaking. "Ah…Amaterasu. Origin of all that is good and mother to us all…Silva, guardian of the Wood Nymphs... and Celeste, messenger of the golden kingdom of Halley…Long have I hidden myself here among the nature of Kamiki. But the time has come for I, Hasugami, proud member of the Hanagami trio of flora gods, to reveal myself. May my power be of assistance on your grave quest."

"Holy smokes!" Issun exclaimed. "That was Hasugami! With the water lily power, you can even create lily pads on water! You can use them to cross any body of water! Let's try it out! C'mon! This way, guys!"

Abigail pronounced this to be awesome and followed Ammy, Silva right behind them.

(Scene Transition says Mystic is scary when angry. o_o)

Issun led the all to a spot just behind Susano's house. "I've been eyeing that treasure chest out there for some time. Why don't you create some lily pads here? Make 'em like stepping stones all the way to the island. Just draw circles on the water to make the lily pads! Simple. C'mon, Furball! Lemme see ya work wonders with that brush of yours!" Ammy then proceeded to make a lily pad, and jumped onto it.

Silva chose to simply fly over to the island.

Abigail could also easily fly over by turning into a bird, but decided against it in favor of trying the lily pads out at least once. Ammy opened the chest to claim a Sun Fragment.

"At least we don't have to worry about getting wet anymore!" Issun exclaimed. "I know! Now that we've got this new power, we can use it to travel a bit farther out of the village! Remember the waterway leading to the forest I told ya about?"

"You mean the dock to Agata Forest?" Silva cut in.

"Yeah. Our little Sakuya is back to her old peppy self, but…there are still lots of guardian saplings that haven't blossomed!"

Everyone looked back at the Konohana tree.

"...what are we waiting for?" Silva asked. "Let's go!" She flew off towards Shinshu field.

"Hey, wait!" Abigail exclaimed. She leapt back to the shore and yelped as she hastily pushed the skirt of her knee-length, Lolita-style dress down when it flew up. She glanced around furtively to make sure no one had seen anything.

Unfortuantely, Issun had been right behind her, and was now chuckling pervertedly.

Ammy immediately ate him, ignoring his shouts of protest.

"...I feel strangely violated," Abigail muttered to herself. "Like some kind of Neko Sugar Girl. Oh well, nobody saw..." And with that she headed off to follow Silva to the field.

* * *

><p><strong>Mystic: Oh Abigail. xD;<br>Mikey: Poor, poor Abigail. xD ...We're terrible people for putting panty shots in a fanfic, aren't we? :T  
>Mystic: ...technically nobody but Issun saw.<br>Mikey: Which, by the way, he is the WORST person to have seen... xD  
>Mystic: Very true. xD Oh, and the reason why they debated over the demon outlaw's name is because in the game, it's Toya, but I could have sworn it was Toyo, thus the brief debate about what his name is. In other news, *gasp* Issun has been flicked for the first time in several chapters! WE MUST CELEBRATE!<br>Issun: -_-  
>Silva *throws confetti in the air*<br>Abigail: *giggle*  
>Ammy: *eyeroll*<br>Mikey: YEEEAAAAAHHH! *dances* You know you guys enjoyed seeing him be eaten by Ammy (and once by Abigail) though. xD ...Oh, and review please! Those are reasons to celebrate, too! They make us do the REVIEW SHUFFLE! *awesome face*  
>Mystic: *doing the Konohana shuffle in the background*<strong>


	9. Of Fish and Fruitcake

**Mystic: I feel like we're just copying OACA and the ALBN series with the OC insert thing... Anyway, early update for your enjoyment~ Thanks to TheManWithBacon, I think Senom299 reviewed at some point, can't remember, and thanks to the third reviewer whose name I can't remember, sorry. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. You mentioned something about TvTropes. ...and we didn't offer anything last chapter, which may explain the lack of reviews, so just state what you want in your review and it shall be delivered.  
>Mikey: Ask and it shall be given. ...Sorry fangirls, we're not offering you lease on characters for a day. One does not simply put characters on lease. ...Anyway NEXT CHAPTER!<br>Mystic: LET'S-A GO.  
>Mikey: WOOT.<strong>

* * *

><p>"And now we shall use our new-found power to get into Agata Forest!" Silva declared ecstatically.<p>

"Hey! I was going to say that!" Issun protested.

"Too late, I said it first~!" Silva taunted in a sing-song voice, then flew away over the water before Issun could reply. Abigail, who had been quite put off from leaping over the lily pads due to the unfortunate mishap last chapter (Mystic refrained from commenting on that and simply went to go fix the fourth wall), simply turned into a bird again and flew across the water, following Silva.

Ammy simply drew her lilypads and leapt across the water, then cherry bombed the crack in the wall when she got to the end.

Silva could hardly contain her excitement; in just a few minutes she would be meeting her second favorite character (her first favorite being Ammy).

Issun gasped in disbelief when they emerged from the tunnel. "The cursed zone expanded into the forest?"

The whole area was cursed: the forest, the cliffs above them, even the water. The only thing untouched was a small strip of beach.

"I thought evil would shun areas with so much grass and trees. It must be some curse, the way it's changed the forest…" Issun continued.

"That's so sad..." Abigail trailed sorrowfully.

Silva sighed, and then slid down the side of the cliff instead of going down the road like a normal person would.

"Hey! There's a cave over here!" She called up, waiting for Ammy to get to the bottom of the stairs before heading inside.

"Well, someone's impatient today," Issun grumbled.

"Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, princess." Silva replied.

Abigail giggled at the retort before following the others. "This place is interesting, isn't it?" she asked brightly. "Just, you know... if only it weren't all cursed like this." She lowered her gaze sadly.

Silva was staring contemplatively at the three flaming chests inside the cave.

"...what're you doing?" Issun asked.

"Huh?" Silva looked up. "Oh, nothing, really. I just felt like doing that. C'mon, let's go inside the house thing now."

"House thing?" Issun looked up. "Huh? What's a house doing in this cave? How could anyone live here with that cursed zone spreading around?"

Abigail shrugged in response. "Maybe we should go check it out...?"

Ammy was already walking inside the building. Silva followed quickly, half dragging, half pulling Abigail. Abigail sighed and just hummed cheerfully.

The fortune lady inside - Madame Fawn - looked at them serenely. "Ha ha ha. You've come, white wolf, wood nymph and shapeshifter child. And you look troubled."

Abigail sweatdropped. "...Uh... hey guys... how'd she know I was a... and that you were a... I mean..."

"You may call me Madame Fawn. I read bones to see the future." Madame Fawn answered. "I knew you would come. I saw it in a vision. It looks like the world outside is in great chaos."

"You don't really need to see the future to know that..." Silva muttered. Abigail privately agreed.

Madame Fawn ignored her. "This is not to say that it was not predestined to happen. However, this year is special…this is the 100th year since Nagi and Shiranui's adventure. You saw the enormous cursed area on your way here, did you not?"

"Kinda hard to miss..." Issun said.

"Land rendered barren…all who approach tainted by darkness…only one creature has the power to control this…Orochi!"

Ammy growled at the name.

"Even so, the rate at which it spreads…incredibly…the curse can only be lifted by restoring the Guardian Saplings. Perhaps you will encounter one hidden here in Agata Forest. That's enough idle chatter for now! I'm trying to run a business here. Like I told you, I am a fortune teller. The bones reveal all. If you have the money, I can even tell your future. Interested?"

"Heck yea-"

"No thanks!" Silva cut Issun off, then proceeded to grab Issun and cover his face so he kept quiet. Abigail gave Silva a look of confusion, but mentally shrugged and went with it.

Ammy and the others walked back outside.

At that moment, Issun decided to pull out his sword and stab Silva.

"Ow!" She dropped him, sucking on the cut. "Wha waf taht for?!" She demanded, her words a bit muffled.

"...Did you just _stab _her?" Abigail stared blankly at Issun.

"Yes, I did!" Issun retorted. "And I should be the one asking what that was for! Why'd you cut me off, huh?!"

"...Silva... cutting him off was rude, but..."

"Her fortunes tell us nothing at all! We would have been wasting 500 yen!" Silva protested.

Abigail sweatdropped. "Was stabbing her really necessary, Issun...?"

"She wasn't letting go!" Issun argued.

Abigail sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You guys... do I have to separate you two...?"

"How, exactly, would you separate us?" Silva asked, one eyebrow raised skeptically.

Abigail mutely took a step forward, leaned down, picked up Issun, and placed him in her pocket. She then walked over to Silva and flicked her forehead, followed by her walking off without saying another word.

Silva stared blankly after Abigail for a few seconds, then looked at Ammy, who was laughing.

"Shut the hell up," She muttered, following Abigail outside. Ammy followed her, still laughing.

As Silva got nearer Abigail, muffled curses could be heard, as well as the sound of fabric tearing slightly.

"You'd better not be slicing through my pocket," Abigail said flatly, peering down at her pocket.

Issun immediately hid his sword. "No..."

"Yes."

"Shut up, Silva."

"I thought the meaning of separation was that you couldn't talk to each other," Abigail grumbled as she continued on in search of... wherever they were going...

"It's not my fault I can hear her/him!" Issun and Silva chorused.

"Well that doesn't mean you have to respond," Abigail replied testily. She glanced around, then slowed and finally came to a halt. "...Hey guys, uhm, where are we going, anyway?"

"...the guardian sapling." Silva replied, facepalming. "It's been repeated several times, how could you have forgotten?-!"

"I know _that_," Abigail whined. "But where _is _the sapling?"

"We're going to _find_ it!" Silva replied. "And since everywhere else is covered in a cursed zone, that way's the only place left to look!" (In reality she just pulled the location from memory, but it would seem suspicious if she knew everything without any logical reason as to _why_.) She pointed towards a thin stretch of sand next to the cliff behind them.

"...Oh, 'kay..." Abigail nodded (albeit a little sheepishly) and began to walk along the sand, continuing her humming, but in song form. "_But if you're in the eye of the storm... just think of the lonely dove..._" She continued on like this for a little while, and when she had finished her song, fell back to let Ammy lead. After a solid thirty seconds of boredom, Abigail poked Silva's arm. "Silva?"

Silva (who was hovering just above the water next to the sand so as to make more space) looked over at Abigail. "Hm?"

"...Can I call you Silva-chan?" Abigail gave Silva what she clearly thought was a winning grin.

"...what?"

"Honorifics!" Abigail grinned eagerly. "Onigiri-sensei told me about 'em. Seems no one but the elderly in Nippon, and sometimes not even them, ever bother with 'em anymore, but I like them~ '-chan' and '-kun' mean I think of you as a friend, then '-sama' is for important people, '-senpai' is kinda like your friend who's higher up than you, and I think '-koi' means lover. You're my friend, so Silva-chan!" She continued to look as if she thought this was a perfectly logical and sensible idea.

Silva was silent for a long moment, trying to get her brain to process what Abigail just said. "...no, you may not call me Silva-chan. I really don't see why you have to express it in words."

"Awwww..." Abigail whined. "You're no fun..." She glanced over at Ammy with a pout on her face, though it was soon replaced by a grin. "Hey Ammy!" she called, beaming.

Ammy looked over her shoulder at Abigail.

"C...Can I call you Ammy-senpai?" She grinned again, but rather more shyly.

Silva threw up her hands in the background.

Ammy gave a noncommittal shrug.

Abigail looked as though she had just mentally scored a point and looked down at her pocket, then poked Issun through the pocket.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"S-Sorry, did that hurt...?" Abigail frowned, but lightened up a moment afterward. "Issun, I dub thee _Issun-kun_! ...No, that doesn't sound right. Meh, whatever, I dub thee _Issun-chan!_"

"...Issun what?"

Abigail proceeded to explain honorifics to him in a similar fashion to the way she had explained them to Silva.

Silva would have bet 10,000 yen Issun was disappointed he wasn't more than a friend.

"...that makes sense, I guess..." Issun said after several seconds' silence.

"Okay!" Abigail grinned and looked as though she had mentally scored yet another point. She gave Silva a pout. "See, Silva, they let me do it..."

"Yeah, Silva, come on!" Issun's voice came from Abigail's pocket.

Ammy gave Silva puppy dog eyes.

"Oh come on!" Silva threw her hands up in the air again. "If you're all going to turn on me, fine! You can go Bloom the stupid sapling by yourselves!" And she flew off to the only island not covered by the cursed zone.

"...Oops..." Abigail mumbled. "I think we overdid it..."

"Ya think?"

"Oh be quiet, Issun-chan."

(Scene Transition says hi.)

Silva sat on one of the roots of the tree, annoyed.

"Don't like the honorifics, do you?" A voice said from high above her.

Silva looked up, shocked, to see the familiar pink and purple clothing. "...Waka?!"

"The one and only," He replied cheerfully.

"But- how- wha-?"

"Oh, I've been here for quite a while." He said. "I heard your conversation. And don't bother trying to pretend you don't know anything  
>about the game, either."<p>

"How- wait, let me guess. You know because you're a prophet or some random reason like that."

"Close enough." He grinned.

"I thought you weren't supposed to talk until Ammy came out of the cave...?"

"That was my original plan, yes, but now you're here and I figured, might as well kill the boredom."

"And how exactly do you plan on keeping this conversation going?"

"The exact same way we're keeping it going now."

"...By talking about nothing?"

"You're very perceptive, ma fleur."

"Why thank you."

Suddenly, a wave of flowers burst from the general direction of where the Guardian Sapling was supposed to stand, giving the grassy areas a luminescent green glow for a brief moment and renewing the rest of the forest as the cursed zone was destroyed. The Guardian Sapling had burst into blossom, and it was obvious who had done it.

"Well, I should get ready for my entrance." Waka commented, watching the cave entrance and readying his flute.

Silva snorted. "What entrance?"

"The entrance where I land on the water because I'm god-level."

Silva nearly choked on her laughter.

(Scene Transition has nothing to say.)

When the reduced party exited the small area where the Sapling was located, Issun had been taken out of Abigail's pocket, Ammy had a new weapon, and Abigail was busy staring at said new weapon because it was cool and gravity defying. "...I wonder how those even work..." she trailed, as she stared at the Rosary weapon.

Ammy would have explained, but alas, she was a wolf. She settled for shrugging and leapt onto the island in front of them. Abigail followed suit, pondering how exactly the beads worked, when her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a flute.

"Is that Silva?" Abigail wondered. "She does play flute..." She pulled out her own flute-weapon-thing that she had stolen from the green imp and began to examine it, wondering how to play it. "Maybe I'll ask her how..."

But it wasn't Silva, as the voice that followed shortly after the song ended showed. "Hark! The call of the heavens, the earth, the sea... they summon me forth to defeat evil!"

If one listened closely, they could hear a female voice say "_That was really bad._", followed by a _"Shut up, you're ruining my moment."_

The man (who Ammy had finally spotted high up in the trees) turned around. "Waka, the god's gift to man, is here! Bonjour!"

_"'God's gift to man'?"_

_"What did I say about interrupting?"_

_"Absolutely nothing at all."_

Apparently Issun hadn't heard the quick exchange, because he immediately asked, "What's up with that guy?"

Abigail shrugged. "I dunno. He speaks French, though," she pointed out helpfully.

The man continued talking. "Those crimson markings... that divine instrument on your back... you look kinda weird, but I reckon you pack a punch, baby!"

"Hey! Think you're so special way up there, huh?" Issun yelled up to Waka. "Get down here and talk face to- wait, did he say crimson shading? Can he see your true form, Ammy?"

Abigail frowned in confusion. "He might really be special somehow," she pointed out. "Don't judge a book by its cover, Issun, remember?"

Waka jumped down from the branches, slowing down until he landed softly on the water like it was solid ground.

Silva quickly jumped after him, coming to a stop just above the water and hovering there behind him.

"Hi guys." She waved at the trio.

"Silva?" Abigail tilted her head. "What're you doing over there...?"

"I met Waka when you guys were in the cave." Silva replied.

"Well, he can't be bad if Silva's with him," Abigail concluded, trying to ignore how strangely annoying Waka was to her.

Waka suddenly took out his flute and pulled out a lightsaber... thing... from it, pointing it at Ammy and the others.

Silva blinked in surprise, forgetting they had to fight him.

"Hey! He drew a sword!" Issun stated the obvious.

"I call it a flutesaber..." Silva muttered.

"I take it back. This guy is a jerk." Abigail spoke flatly.

Silva bit her lip nervously.

"Oui! This is how I get my point across, pun intended…the moment the cursed zone started spreading across Nippon, I saw the shadowy figure that removed the sacred sword Tsukuyomi flee into Kamiki Village and seal the entrance with a huge rock. You guys know anything about that?"

Silva had moved around back to Ammy by this point, and shook her head in answer to Waka's question. Abigail, on the other hand, looked alarmed. "Doesn't that mean the person who took the sword is in Kamiki...?" she wondered.

"This guy gives me the creeps." Issun announced. "Better keep our eyes on him." Then the noticed Ammy had gotten into a battle stance while Silva had pulled out her sword. "Huh? You guys getting all worked up again?"

"Magnifique! I wouldn't have it any other way!" Waka's grin grew wider. "Now you shall get an earful of my beloved sword!"  
>"Earful?"<p>

"Wouldn't it be... ...actually I'm not sure what it'd be."

Waka made another battle pose. "Behold, Pillow Talk!"

"...did he seriously name his sword Pillow Talk?"

Abigail almost burst out laughing but couldn't because she was seriously irritated by Waka for some reason.

"Let's rock, baby!" Waka said, swinging his sword at Ammy. Ammy leaped over him and turned in mid-air, hitting him with her Devout Beads as soon as her feet touched the ground. Abigail sweatdropped and tried to stay out of the action because blade + karate = bad things, sadly enough. She was also rather worried about her flute being cut in half (anything was possible with a sword named freaking Pillow Talk) so there was nothing she could do.

While Ammy was distracting him, Silva came up behind him and slashed at his back, though he turned at the last second and parried her. Waka alternated between swordfighting with Silva and throwing daggers at Ammy (And sometimes Abigail), though he was fighting a losing battle.

"I- still- don't- see- why- we- have- to- freaking- fight- you!" Silva grunted, parrying one of Waka's blows or slashing at him with each word. She pushed him away, panting, but wasn't expecting him to throw his daggers, and one embedded itself in her thigh as a result. "Argh!" She fell to one knee, grimacing in pain.

"Silva, you okay?-!" Abigail called out in alarm, then squeaked as a dagger sliced her left arm. She cringed as the fresh cut in her arm seared with pain, and clamped a hand over it, feeling it quickly grow hot and sticky.

Ammy growled and started spamming Cherry Bomb and Powerslash, while avoiding the other daggers as well.

As the dagger was too deep to pull out, and Silva's injury was bad enough to prevent her from standing, she did the only thing she could think of- she tackled Waka.

Waka's eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting this, and they both fell to the floor, Waka trying to pry Silva off him and Silva trying to hit whatever part of him she could.

"Stay still, dammit!" She growled as they rolled over several times, each trying to gain the upper hand.

Abigail weakly giggled despite herself and tried her best not to laugh anymore.

Ammy stood there uncertainly, unable to do anything- if she used her Devout Beads or her Celestial Brush, she could end up hitting Silva instead...

Waka finally managed to (somehow) throw Silva off of him, but with much more force than he realized, causing Silva to go sailing and crash into Abigail, both of them falling into the water behind them. Abigail bobbed up at once, gasping and sputtering slightly and shaking her soaked hair out of her face. She glanced around for Silva. "Hey, Silva, you okay...?"

Silva was nowhere to be seen.

"...S-Silva?" Abigail whimpered. She took an enormous gulp of air and dove beneath the surface of the water again, counting on Ammy to finish fighting Waka. She worriedly scanned the waters for Silva. She was admittedly not too hard to find, considering the struggle she was putting up (not to mention her white hair), but she was quite far away, and Abigail worried she wouldn't have enough air to save her.

A large fish suddenly swam past her vision. Abigail blinked and stared after it- and suddenly she had an idea.

She struggled to transform in the water and finally managed it, inhaling deeply through her new gills as she dove to rescue Silva from a watery death. She easily maneuvered through the water and nudged Silva, staring at her meaningfully (as meaningfully as a fish could, anyway). She hoped Silva would recognize the ribbon around her neck.

Silva looked up, noticing the fish- and more specifically, the blurry ribbon it had. She reached out and grabbed the tail, doing her best to hold on as Abigail swam to the surface and really wishing she knew how to swim. When Abigail had reached the top, she guided Silva's hands to a section of the shore she could hang onto, then dove out of the water herself. She transformed into herself (not before flopping around a little) and tugged on Silva's wrists to pull her out of the water.

Silva dragged herself to the surface, coughing up water.

By this time Ammy had defeated Waka, and was now licking Silva's face.

"H-heh heh..." Silva laughed weakly. "I'm fine, Ammy. Don't worry about me." Silva glared at Waka over Ammy's shoulder. "I just hope you kicked his ass."

Waka pretended to look hurt, then pulled a face, making Silva cough hurriedly in an attempt to hide her laughter.

"Silva..." Abigail spoke up suddenly, in an alarmed voice, "there's a knife in your leg...!"

"Huh...?" Silva looked down at her leg, where there was, indeed, the dagger still stuck in it. "Oh, yeah... I forgot 'bout that."

Abigail sputtered indignantly, then turned to Waka, took a breath, and managed, "You... you... you..." Clearly, she couldn't think of an insult.

"Fruitcake?" Issun supplied.

_"You psychotic fruitcake!_" Abigail finally screeched.

"I'd like to see the logic that makes Waka a fruitcake." Silva called from behind Abigail.

Abigail gave her an "are you serious" stare.

Silva stared back.

Waka was watching the staring contest with amusement.

There was an awkward silence.

Waka coughed, bringing their attention to him. "It's been quite some time since I tasted your power, Amaterasu. That's enough for now."

"Too late now! You're the one who picked the fight!" Issun yelled. "Wait, you know this guy, Ammy?" He gave Ammy a curious stare.  
>Ammy shook her head uncertainly.<p>

Waka simply chuckled and put away his flutesaber. "Well…that was pretty tactless. Excuze-moi, baby. You see, I was looking into that cursed zone that struck this area. It consumed all in it's path, even the light of the sun. It is the curse of Orochi, the legendary 8-headed dragon!"

"O-Orochi..?" Issun replied fearfully.

An ominous wind blew across the forest.

"Do not utter that name without reason." Waka warned. "That alone could curse the weak of mind."

"'Fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself'," Abigail mumbled.

"Orochi was slain 100 years ago by Nagi and Shiranui, and its evil spirit was sealed away in the Moon Cave, which I guarded. You know, the cave in the middle of the lake over on Shinshu Field."

Ammy yawned and looked like she wanted to die of boredom while Silva was trying her best to tune out Waka's spiel. Abigail continued to give Waka a strange looking stare that seemed to state something along the lines of "you are an ass".

"But someone has gone and freed Orochi by removing Tsukuyomi. The beast's evil has caused a cursed zone to cover these lands. I never thought the sacred sword could be so easily removed. Whoever did it waited till I was back at the capital. It seems things are afoot that even I did not prophesize!" He turned back towards the group, and his jaw dropped when he realized that Ammy and Silva were asleep. With Paper Mario sleep bubbles. Abigail mumbled "cool story bro".

"We're way ahead of you, pretty boy!" Issun said. "We've been busy dispelling the curse left and right." He accidentally bounced into Ammy's face, and the wolf gave him a frustrated look before going back to sleep. "That Orochi's gonna be mincemeat when we're through with it!"

"So you're the ones who've revived the trees in this area..."

"You dumbass, you knew the whole time." Silva thought sleepily, having woken up by the sudden lack of talking.

"…but a lot of time's passed since Orochi's return. You'd better pick up the pace, ma cherie." Waka continued.

Issun's aura turned red. "What?"

"I'm sorry to say, our battle just now was a big disappointment."

"You call being tackled and wrestled to the ground by a girl a disappointment?" Abigail asked blankly.

Silva burst out laughing at that.

"You're not what you used to be, Amaterasu. You may have defeated Orochi long ago, but…one cannot dwell on past glories." Waka shook his head sadly, completely ignoring Abigail and Silva, perhaps because he wanted to salvage what was left of his dignity. Or because he wanted to erase that memory from his mind forever. "You've weakened greatly during your 100-year slumber."

"That's enough!" Issun pulled out Denkomaru, trembling with rage (RAEG). "Now tell me about that shadowy figure you saw fleeing to Kamiki! How do we know it wasn't you?"

"Relax, my little bouncing friend. I would never do such a thing. Oh, I almost forgot! I have a little prophecy for you. I can see into the future, you know. I foresee a log and big thrills!" Waka made yet another pose.

Silva facepalmed. "You prophecies are horrible, you know that?"

"It sounds like a roller coaster," Abigail muttered.

"It's worse." Silva mumbled in reply.

"You'll know what I'm talking about when the time comes! Anyway, I must be off. The work of a prophet is never done. Au revoir, baby." Waka jumped up and used his headdress thing to fly away into the distance like Superman.

"What a freak!" Issun was jumping up and down while waving his sword around madly. "Who the heck does he think he is?-"

"God, what a fruitcake!" Abigail said loudly as she stood up. She began to pace back and forth, still speaking loudly. "What's his beef? He just randomly shows up and has some spazzy conversation with us that made no sense at all, and then he tries to kill us. And he almost killed Silva! And then he just walked off- no, he flew off! With that headdress thing he was wearing! What even was that? Was it a cape or... no, it was coming from his head- whatever, he flew off! And what the heck is up with that prophecy? A log and big thrills? I'm sorry, could you be a little MORE cryptic? I don't think that was enough!" she ended sarcastically.

"Are you quite done yet?" Silva asked. She had pulled out the dagger while Abigail was ranting, and Ammy was (somehow) currently helping her bandage the wound with the bandages Silva had in her satchel.

"No!" Abigail screeched at her. "Don't interrupt!" Obviously, she was quite pissed. She would probably apologize for this later, but right now she was too enraged to really give a shit. She inhaled and was about to continue when she realized... she had lost her train of thought. She opened and closed her mouth several times, looking much like a fish, before finally settling for glaring at Silva and folding her arms with an annoyed, hard-to-take-serious-because-it-looked-childish, pout.

Silva simply grinned at Abigail, then got up with Ammy's help (help being Ammy half-dragging her).

"Hey, who's that?" Issun suddenly piped up, pointing toward a nearby island.

"That is a boy who is apparently fishing with no line." Silva announced in a pompous voice.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious!" Abigail said brightly, having recovered from her rant.

"You're welcome, Sergeant Sarcasm!" Silva saluted Abigail.

"Are you two done yet?" Issun asked impatiently.

"No." Silva replied, rolling her eyes.

Abigail grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, we're done..."

"Asdfghjkl," Silva muttered unintelligibly, hopping over the water from island to island until she got to Kokari, at that point stumbling and almost knocking the small boy over.

"Excuse me," She said. "but I do believe you are fishing with no line."

"I do believe you almost knocked him over," Abigail pointed out.

Silva made a "STFU" motion with her hand, still looking at Kokari.

Kokari was mumbling to himself. "Oh, poor Ume…I wonder if he's okay…" Then he noticed Silva and the others.

"Did he seriously just notice us?" Abigail asked blankly to no one in particular.

"Oh, hello, doggie, girls." He said. "Are you all alone, too? I'm Kokari. Pleased to meet you." A scroll suddenly came down, bearing the words "Boy of the Forest Kokari".

"He doesn't sound very pleased." Issun muttered.

Silva pointed to the red stick pole thing he was holding. "...why are you fishing with no line?"

Kokari completely ignored her question and instead looked at his pole. "Oh, this? This is my fishing pole."

"Oh…um…some fishing pole you've got there, kid." Issun said slowly.

"Actually, there's no fishing line or hook on it right now." Kokari said, stating the obvious.

"Isn't it Issun's job to state the obvious?" Silva muttered.

"Hey!"

"I thought it was everyone's job...?" Abigail wondered.

"But there's a reason for that" Kokari continued. "…my dog Ume and I were exploring a secret place the other day…an ancient building known as Tsuta Ruins. We'd never been able to get into the ruins until we found a key deep inside the forest. But when we went in, we heard a horrible roar from deep within. I didn't waste any time getting out of there! I locked the entrance to the ruins and hightailed it home. I thought Ume had followed me, but he was nowhere to be found! I bet he's trapped back at those ruins! He must be crying, all scared and alone…"

"If you know where he is, then why didn't you go rescue him?" Issun asked. "This is no time to be fishing!"

"Yes, well, there's a reason for that. You see, on my way home from the rains, I fell near the water's edge and in went the key!" He started to cry. "I've tried my hardest to fish it back out, but…I've lost all my line and hooks! And now all I have is this pole! WAAAAAA!"

"Man, this kid's a crybaby…" Issun grumbled.

Silva smacked Kokari upside the head.

"Silva!" Abigail gaped.

Kokari fell over. "Ow!"

"Okay I did not hit him that hard."

Abigail shoved Silva with the same amount of force that Silva used to smack Kokari.

Silva barely moved an inch. "...see?"

Abigail facepalmed. "I wonder what a real shove woulda done..."

"Now cut that out!" Issun said in a stern voice. "There's nothin' I hate more than a crybaby! You were the one who left your dog on those dangerous ruins. So you gotta do whatever it takes to get the key and go help him!"

Abigail sputtered indignantly.

Silva nodded approvingly.

Abigail slapped Silva.

"What was that for?-!-?" Silva whisper-yelled, not wanting to interrupt Issun and Kokari.

Abigail glared, but said nothing.

"Listen," Silva began. "Issun is doing that kid a favor. Kokari ran at the first sign of danger, left his dog behind, and lost the key, choosing to just sit there holding a fishing rod with no line. Unless this kid learns to be brave and actually do something instead of letting others do it for him, he's never gonna get anywhere. You were the same," She poked Abigail's chest. "You couldn't do squat and we had to fight your battles for you until recently, when you chose to learn to defend yourself. Do you want that kid to be like that forever?" She pointed at Kokari.

"...I guess not," Abigail mumbled reluctantly. "Still, you guys don't have to be that harsh..."

"This is not harsh," Silva retorted. "Harsh would be full-out yelling at that kid and telling him how much of a wimp he is."

"Did you really have to hit him?"

"Yes," Silva said, thinking of the game.

Abigail scowled darkly.

"B-b-but…" Kokari stuttered.

"Listen here, kid…fishin's all about attitude. Attitude! There's nothin' you can't catch without the right attitude! Fish, babes, or whatever. It all can be yours! Go ahead! Act like you're having fun. We'll watch. ...Boy, this murky water sure gives me the creeps." Issun said quietly, trying to only let the girls and Ammy hear it. But he failed.

"People call it the Deep Abyss because they can't see the bottom." Kokari said. "But that's not why these waters are famous. Legend has it a humongous fish swallowed the moon reflected on the surface of the water. No one knows if the legend is true…but to this day, the moon never rises in the Agata Forest."

"Give the fairytales a rest, will ya kid? They're so gloomy. Think more positive. Have fun, fun!" Issun said, then started talking to Ammy. "Okay…let's use that Celestial Brush of yours to help him out. There should be some fishing line on his pole, but there's not…well, just make some by drawing a line from the pole to the fish!"

"I am really glad I don't have to do this." Silva said, leaning against the stone sign near Kokari and watching.

Abigail still looked rather put-out, but sat on the grass and did not argue further. She folded her arms, then suddenly flinched and clutched the arm that had been injured while fighting Waka. It seemed that they had somehow forgotten about it.

"Leave it to Abigail to forget about a wound..." Mikey muttered from the clouds.

Mystic smacked her for unnecessarily breaking the fourth wall.

Silva noticed Abigail wincing. "Alright, what battle wound needs patching up?" She mumbled, pulling out bandages and motioning for Abigail to show her her wound. Abigail spread out her injured arm, motioning to but not touching the angry-looking red cut in her arm.

While Silva pulled out antibiotics and disinfectant and whatever the crap she needed because we don't know because of too much Trauma Center, Ammy was secretly helping Kokari fish, mainly catching small fish like a goby. One such goby flew off the hook, smacking Abigail in the face and then landing in Silva's lap.

"Aw, what the hell?-!" She yelped, dropping the roll of bandages she was holding and tossing the fish back towards Ammy. The fish knocked Issun off Ammy's head, much to Silva's delight, and then landed at Kokari's feet. Abigail simply sat there looking stunned for several moments.

Ammy double facepawed. Somehow.

Eventually, with some difficulty, they managed to catch a freaking gigantic salmon. And when we say gigantic, we mean gigantic. It lay on the island, flopping around, as everyone just stared at the salmon.

"...Holy crap that is a huge salmon," Silva stated, staring at the salmon with awe. Abigail nodded silently in agreement.

"Wow, that's a big one!" Kokari exclaimed, clearly also in agreement, but seemed to be more ecstatic than stunned. The fish suddenly had a serious spazz, and Kokari started to just stare at it like the others. "Huh?"

The salmon suddenly coughed up a strange looking object that, considering the plot, was probably the key.

"Hey!" Kokari exclaimed. "Th-That's the Ruins Key!"

"Weird lookin' key," Abigail observed.

"It popped right outta the mouth of that big ol' fish!" Kokari continued excitedly. "Now I can go save Ume over at the ruins! I'm gonna go all the way in this time! No running away for me now!"

Ammy suddenly grabbed the key and walked away. Kokari noticed about five seconds too late and started hopping up and down, throwing a hissy fit. "Hey! Give that back!"

"Heh heh, good move, Ammy!" Issun snickered. "We can't have the kid getting hurt on your watch!"

Abigail double facepalmed along with Silva.

"Well whadda we waitin' for! We got a lost dog to find in Tsuta Ruins!" Issun declared.

"ALLITERATION!" Silva suddenly yelled out.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Get back here!" Kokari shouted.

The party then ran away to avoid Kokari's horrible, horrible wrath.

(Scene Transition was wondering if he was going to be used at all this chapter.)

"So now that we've got this key," Silva began, twirling the oddly shaped key on her finger. "we're going to go to the ruins, right?"

"Yep!"

"How are you doing that?" Abigail asked Silva blankly, staring at her as she twirled the key on her finger.

"Magic," was Silva's simple reply.

"Oh." And Abigail totally bought it.

Silva walked up to the ruins door and slammed the key into the keyhole.

"...Did you really have to do it with so much force?" Issun sweatdropped.

"You did it like a Selkie," Abigail said dramatically.

"Like a what?"

"A S- aw, nothin', forget it."

"...Well, let's go look for that kid's dog..." Issun trailed in an attempt to cover the following awkward silence. "I'm actually hoping we might find something more. Nobody's entered these ruins for ages, right?"

"Which leads me to wonder how Kokari even got the key in the first place," Silva pondered.

"Just think about it..." Issun continued, totally ignoring Silva. "There could be a fabulous treasure hoard hidden in here!" He chuckled as if in anticipation. "But enough talk. Let's start looking!"

"ONWARD TO TSUTA RUINS!" Abigail shouted.

Silva leapt dramatically into the gaping doorway, followed by Abigail, with Ammy and Issun following close behind.

* * *

><p><strong>Mystic: Anyone who has played Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles will understand that reference. XDD<strong>  
><strong>Mikey: *COUGH THAT MEANS YOU SENOM COUGH*<strong>  
><strong>Mystic: *looks up at Silva's conversation with Waka* I think I wrote that when I was half-asleep... I don't remember... but yeah, it's unreal and fail and I kept it because it amuses me. XD Anyone who thinks it's stupid and shouldn't be there can just ignore it. :P<strong>  
><strong>Mikey: But I liked it... *shot*<strong>  
><strong>Mystic: XD *patpat* Thank you, Mikey.<strong>  
><strong>Silva: Review and you get Waka's hat! Headdress! Thing! *holds up said headdress thing*<strong>  
><strong>Waka: I'd like that back, please. :T<strong>  
><strong>Silva: ...NOPE. *runs*<strong>  
><strong>Waka: *sighs* *chases*<strong>


	10. The Bitter End

We probably owe you guys an apology. I know it's been ages since we last posted a chapter, but there's a good reason for that.

The fact of the matter is that Mikey and I have completely lost interest in O:A. Life got in the way, and by the time we came back to it, it had been months since we last touched it. At that point, we had improved our writing so much that we didn't want to even look at O:A anymore, let alone continue it. For me, there were also a lot of reasons why it's bad. Let's look at a few:

Silva is not hotheaded, she doesn't swear, she's an adventurous and slightly reckless fairy with a lot of patience and a good sense of humor. But I had been so influenced by OACA and ALBN, that she pretty much became a carbon copy of Li and Celia—and I didn't even realize it.

The way we wrote the world and characters is so unbelievable it's not even funny. I know it's a game, and obviously the fanfic's gotta have video game logic, but I've grown so much in my writing that now, if it's not professional, it's not good. Agata Forest in particular bugs me so much—it's a forest, and obviously they aren't going to make an actual sized forest in-game, but in O:A it was as if it was the size of a house, and that's not how it works.

A lot of the jokes were either overused or already used—as I said before, OACA and ALBN _heavily_ influenced me when writing O:A, so a good portion of the jokes were ripped straight from those two stories. There was too much fourth-wall breaking, as well. There's a limit on how much you can do.

Also, we wrote this when we were roughly 12-13, so.

Basically, we're scrapping Okami: Abridged.

HOWEVER.

This does not mean we won't rewrite it!

Yes, you heard that right: We're erasing everything and starting completely from scratch. We haven't started it yet, because Mikey's being a butt and has writer's block, but it'll have everything O:A didn't: Realistically sized areas! Good characterization! Original jokes! Characters that are actual people and react authentically to things instead of just reciting game dialogue! It'll even have—gasp—a _plot_! Oh, and we can't forget: a title that actually makes sense! Yep, instead of Okami: Abridged (it wasn't even abridged what were we thinking), it'll be called Oddball Adventures! Makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

Again, we haven't started it, so we don't have a publish date or anything like that. We're also in college now, so about half of our free time is gone, but keep an eye out for it! Maybe add an alert to my profile. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

I'll be leaving O:A up for those of you who want to reread it for whatever reason. Who knows, maybe I'll reread it myself one day too. Ah, nostalgia.

A little side note: We have some chapters of O:A that we wrote but never published (because I was lazy), as well as bloopers! If you guys want to see them, I put up a poll on my profile. Go vote!


End file.
